Only Mine
by Star-Struck Inu
Summary: As long as dragons have been around so have been tales of their infamous possessiveness. Toothless mulls over his decision to not kill Hiccup and his incredible attatchment to the scrawny youth. (A slightly dark re-imagining of what a wild creature in captivity may feel)
1. Only Mine

Hello and welcome to a second helping of my writing skills, (that is if you've read my other work) if not then well… sit back and enjoy. Oh, and I enjoy reviews, but please try to be intelligent and constructive about them. Saying things like, "Dam ths sux why is Tothles soo meanz?" that is not helpful. And to answer that, CAUSE HE'S A DRAGON NOT A LAPDOG.

To the reviewer "Just Me": I'm not signaling you out, but you're anonymous so I can't send a reply. Thank you for leaving the link, but I already knew that Viking's did, in fact, bathe more than the media portrays them to. I did not think to mention that I would need to tell the readers that little fact. I decided that the other male Vikings smelling would be played for laughs. Again though, thanks for taking the time to leave a review; since I enjoy all reviews!

Note: I am also taking drabble and plot bunny challanges! Let me have 'em!

Also, this chapter has been edited, lucky lucky you new readers!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own How To Train Your Dragon, the film belongs to DreamWorks, and the book to Cressida Cowell. That's right I own nothing, except this plot bunny, that's mine.

Contains Spoilers from movie!

Warnings and Summary (sort of): The warnings are for a little bloody and gore, mostly since this fic is from Toothless's point of view, the mind will work drastically different. Toothless is an animal, an intelligent and fierce dragon. Humans are fierce in their own right, but the difference is that Toothless is not bound by human laws, more rather bound by a human than anything.

Only Mine

I had a different name once, different from the inane one I currently hold now, but for some reason I find it hard to recall my former designation. It had only been a year since my ill-fated meeting with the bola and my rather innocuous meeting with my human; but it felt like all memories before him were faded leaves scattering across my mind. The memories of my human and I together, however, were as vivid as the sunsets we would soar across, each smile and laugh a splash of color across my mind.

I scented the air and curled my tail about me as I slept in front of my human's home. I could smell them everywhere. Them being the other dragons and humans that milled about. The lot of them all stopping to gape at me with their fleshy pink faces, their mouths wide open to display their rather unimpressive teeth. I could hear them and I was most certainly beginning to understand them with or without their hideous language, filled with too many syllables and noises strung together. How could the humans even understand each other? All their incessant babbling, their sheer loudness. I would always tolerate my human's voice though, he was special. Yes, the villagers stood in awe and wonder of me, and how could they not? I am a powerful dragon; my fire-breath could burn anything and my speed in the air unmatched. I could easily-

And then I smelled him my head snapping up from its resting place upon my forearms, his scent had grown on me like a man's taste to alcohol (nasty stuff, I lapped some up once) but I was addicted to my human certainly not nasty at all. He had the typical underlying human scent which was swimming with pheromones and whatever they had ate for the day, but his humans scent was unique, perfectly suited to him. While the other male humans walked around smelling like the dung piles from a Nightmare, he smelled clean with a hint of sea breeze. I did love the ocean so. I immediately began to call to him, my voice reverberating with growls and low frequency moans. He looked up at my voice and with a smile limped faster.

I studied him as he neared me, as I had studied him so many times before. I was certainly no judge of human aesthetics, but he was pleasing at least to my own slit-pupil eyes; but I could quite possibly be biased… no, no I don't think so.

He was slender like the whip of a cattle herder (I had been other places besides this island), much more thin and coltish than the other human males that walked about. His hair was a russet brown in the dark but sparkled red in the dying light of the day. Another feature not uncommon among my human's tribe, many of them sported the same colored red. He was common place, so completely ordinary and underdeveloped, and that was the reason I had dedicated my life to him.

For unlike his brethren he was the kindest, most soft hearted and gentle soul I had ever seen in human or dragons alike. And I a fierce dragon, a loner even amongst my own elusive and paranoid breed who could kill so easily without much thought and have killed so easily; to have had my fire quelled so easily by the touch of his humanly frail hand. I should have killed him when he naively released me from the bola, but I found myself unable to kill the human. A first for me, which would be followed by many "firsts", and now I pay the price of sparing by being completely and utterly devoted to him.

I have not become a simpering little Terror, who would roll over for anyone that gave them the smallest tid-bit of food, but I could not deny the entrancing power that my human seemed to hold over me. Before I had realized what was happening to me, it was already too late to extricate from the incredibly tight web of love and adoration. This insignificant slip of human meat had saddled me, had straddled me, had ridden me, had controlled me and I was powerless to stop him. This human who had been spurned, ridiculed, and utterly browbeat by his tribe had the power in one of his long digits to entrap my mind; to lull me into wanting nothing other than what he wanted.

I can still remember the painful feeling of fear when I had heard his terrified screams; when he was in the metal macabre trap the idiot humans he surrounded himself with called an "arena". I did not even feel my paws as they were pounding up the side of the bluff of my valley. I did not feel the gashes from the stones long after my scales had torn away, nor did I feel the warmth of the blood as it dribbled freely. I did not think as I dashed through the forest, thin branches lashing at my face. I could think of nothing… nothing except him.

Nothing except for the all-consuming thought that I would be too late, that I would arrive to find the Nightmare ( I had deduced from its shrieking cry) tearing at the innards of my human, drinking his delicious blood and gorging on his scorched carcass.

I was not a stupid dragon. There was a reason no pathetic human had gazed upon me or my kind before my little human. We were crafty unlike the more common breeds, intelligent, and we aimed with deadly accuracy. Charging headlong into a metal encased arena, surrounded by the very beings that had forced many species of dragons into near extinction was incredulously reckless. And yet, dashing in without any thought as to who would see me and what would happen to me later did not even encroach the corners of my mind. None of it mattered. Nothing mattered more than two see with my own two eyes his safe fleshy body. Nothing could ever matter more than to wrap myself like a serpent around a beautiful scented tree and protect him with my own life, because without him not only would my body be permanently grounded, so would my spirit.

I broke the ridicules metal mesh that hung like a gleaming spider web with little effort. Cages that could house normal dragons stood no threat to me. Perhaps if I had been in a more grounded state of mind, and I.E not in a rabid and blood-thirsty rampage, I would have taken more notice of my opponent.

The Nightmare could hardly be called such to me. I understand how feeble little humans could find the other dragon terrifying; they had no thick scales to protect them from his scythe claws. (The scythe was a nasty weapon, it had been used against me once by a farmer who had charged me when I was gorging on one of his lost cows, I ate him too). I could also understand how the Nightmares huge jaws could certainly put them off any of their meals, but to me, the great Night Fury, all dragons bowed down before (except that terrible queen). I lunged at him with the energy of a predator that had been cooped up in a cage for weeks, which essentially I was. I ripped at him with my own claws, my serrated teeth short, but my bite was more powerful. We writhed like the snakes we were distantly related to, dust kicking up about us until the only way to attack the other was to hang on grimly and not let go.

We separated, and again had I taken the time I would have seen the dread and fear in his eyes. This Nightmare had been captive for too long, and though more than a match for humans he could not hope to best me, I who was in my prime. The red creature lunged once to my left; I agilely cut him off and slashed with my teeth, tearing more scales from him, drawing deep rivulets of blood. The sight of it, the taste of it threw me into a wide-eyed frenzy and the world tunneled at the edges of my vision.

My nose was alive with information, danger flashed through my mind from all around. Not danger to me, but to my human, my possession, and only mine! I was enraged -seeing red, tasting red- hearing the blood pump through my brain- everything, every thought was swept away like a shell at high-tide in a wave of fury. Logic was shoved aside and overpowered in my tremendous desire to keep my human safe.

Now that everything that had kept me safe for many years had been tossed aside as carelessly as stale bread I flew into action. My eyes did not see they didn't need to; I was unbeatable and unconquerable. I snapped blindly at a human and swung my powerful tail into the midsection of another, snorting as I heard the satisfying sound of the body slamming against the wall. I roared with adulation, I was in control! I leapt with more grace and power than any panther and felt the hard muscled flesh of another Viking beneath my grasping wicked claws. I opened my mouth quaking with the glee that rose up uninhibited in my body. I felt the familiar burn in my throat as I began to prepare the flame, I would finish this-

"Toothless no!" A shrill and desperate scream broke through the cloying frenzy and I stumbled as though struck, my head whipping back to see my human raising a sapling thin arm and near tears in his emerald eyes. I closed my mouth and moaned, unsure of why I was feeling such intense shame. I was protecting my human, I was neither a horse nor a dog, I was a dragon. Yet, even as I thought this I stopped my actions. Dread filled my stomach, as this was the first time I had really obeyed an order.

I startled at the gentle pat and turned slowly, an inquiring gurgle in my throat. My gaze swept over that face, my human's face. His eyes crinkled slightly as he grinned at me, his thin -so thin and so brittle- arms came to wrap around my neck. I could kill him in half a heartbeat. I could swat him like a little gnat, I could crush him with the swipe of my tail, but…

I could not even comprehend a world without my human, as said earlier every memory I had before him had paled to almost ghostly proportions. I felt my eyes slide close and I purred deeply my large head bending over his bony back, nuzzling with a possession that could never be fully explained.

Oh how I adored him, how I loved him, how I wished to only protect and keep him safe. How I wanted that green-eyed angel all to myself and only for myself, to forget that human girl and forget this village. To forget all of this as I had forgotten my own past and we could soar indefinitely for forever, traveling to the very edge of the world.

I felt him climb on and then we were soaring, two becoming one as he guided my new tail-fin and I carried him with the care one would give to a spun-glass figurine because compared to me he was ( spun glass is very pretty, saw it once when I was raiding a human cottage).

But my human was too kind. He loved each person in this village, and he was too sweet for his own good. Every tiny Terror that gave him a sad kicked-dragon look was petted and coddled; every Nightmare that thrashed in the night was soothed beneath his tender hands. Every Nadder that had a head-ache massaged with care, and every twisted up Zippleback was painstakingly untangled and righted without so much as a yelp between the two heads.

Too many of the Vikings of the village, my humans abilities to "tame" dragons were considered little parlor tricks such as knowing where to scratch just so and what type of grass was like an intense high for our kind, but more and more were realizing that my human -MINE- was truly special and seemed to have a natural bond with all dragon kind. Good for the other spineless little lizards, bad for me. He should never touch so gently another dragon when he could touch me. He should never caress an ear belonging to another dragon, nor pet so soothingly another period.

I allowed no other humans to ride me and I bore the few touches of those that got close under the pleading gaze of my human, dear little human -my little human- asking me to behave and to be patient. Why could he not show the same commitment? I knew why, he was a human; humans were tactile animals. Needing to feel everything, craving contact and without it would become insane and wither like a dying plant in a desert. I was here though, why could he not satisfy his urge to pet smooth scales with my own midnight black hide?

I dove from the air suddenly; my helpless anger and hurt bubbling up inside me like a boiling volcano about to erupt. My human was surprised; I heard his gasp and his hands tighten on his saddle. He could have checked it if he wanted, one little twitch of that metal foot and we would halt in midair, but he didn't. I closed my luminescent eyes in shame, my perfectly sweet human; sensitive to my moods was allowing me this pleasure. The pleasure to really choose where I wanted to go, with him unassumingly twitching away to allow me to glide and dive just the way I wanted, trusting me that I would not kill him. Oh it would be so very easy to, but I would never drop let him hit the surface of the water, just as I didn't let him burn up when facing the Queen.

I pulled up inches from the surface of the ocean, and I gazed forlornly down into the frothy sea; my image reflected back was not the mirror image I was hoping to see. It did not reflect the proud and defying Night Fury I was a year ago. It reflected back a yearning, possessive, and rather needy doppelganger that closely resembled me. I turned away hacking out a growl, my human continued to clutch to my back in silence, which in and of itself almost killed me.

He leaned down over my neck, I could feel his warmth through my scales and I couldn't suppress the shudder that ran like little spiders down to the base of my tail. I felt the arms slide around me and pair of soft human lips pressed close to my twitching ears. "Hey buddy, I know you're upset, its alright, it'll be okay." His voice was both a balm and a poison; healing my hurt but further destroying my draconic pride. I was not a dog to be coddled in such a manner! But… oh… it was kind of nice to hear his voice so close and feel his fingers ghost gently over face.

Over and over again my human repeated it like a chant. For a moment I thought I was dreaming, but the tone in his voice sounded almost… desperate? I felt myself stall in the air hovering as the words continued to run across my hearing like water through a brook. My human didn't even notice I was no longer upset, he clung more closely; "It'll be okay, it'll be ok-" the melodic voice broke into sobs.

I was beside myself with anger and fear. Had I been the one to reduce him to such tears? Had I caused my human such upset? I darted with lightning speed to the forest, through the gnarled trees and glided gracefully into the small valley that had been our retreat. Even now so lost to his despair his body instinctively continued to adjust my tail-fin.

I landed softly in the whispering grass and turned around; I growled quietly and snorted making motions with my head toward the ground. The red head slid from his perch upon my back, and his knees buckled as he hit the ground. I caught him gently with my tail, and then herded him close.

I purred and clicked to him, I tried to express my apologies that I had made him so upset, but he shook his head to me; leaving me more and more confused. Finally he stopped crying and sniffled a little, curling up closer in the nest that was my arms and tail. "I'm sorry Toothless, I'm being an idiot again." The self-loathing in his voice startled me. My little human had just started to be confident in his walks -albeit however short they were before he jumped up upon my back to fly away-.

I groaned at him and whiffed his hair with my lips. He smiled and laughed a little at that, "Quit that you overgrown lizard," he shooed away my face before slowly rubbing at it.

"Some of the villagers are still unhappy about dragons living in the same area as them," he began in a decidedly neutral voice.

"While I know they're frightened of you guys, I don't understand why they can't just URGH-" He threw his hands up in the air and huffed.

I purred to him softly and nudged his face with my own. His sparkling emerald eyes gazed up into my own toxic green.

"What- what if they decided to make all the dragons leave again?" He asked it so softly, that for a moment I thought it had been a very disturbing thought running through my head. I let out a shriek of fury at the thought and very deliberately dug my claws into the ground, my tail whipping up even closer. Let them try I declared silently.

The Viking boy smiled up then, a smile that left me warmer than my own fire pits ever could, "Even if they try to make you leave, I would never let them hurt you," he vowed to me. Then I say it, the possessiveness over me I had been waiting to see. Perhaps even my little human could experience such a consuming emotion. My disscontedness assuaged... for now. Next time though it would take more than a pat and a smile; or so I told myself.

I chuckled, the noise sounding oddly distorted from a dragon. I leaned my head down to the grass to turn one eye on my human who was staring back at me. My left cheek pressed to the cool grass, the right side of his face pressed on my scaled forearm. No my little human, if the Vikings you call family tried to separate you from me, there will be none left standing when I'm done. I would never let them hurt you my little human.

Hmmm, a little bit darker than I thought it would be. For people who might question such a level of possessiveness. Think back to where in the movie Toothless and Hiccup were eating fish and the little Terrible Terrors came. Look at how Toothless reacted over fish. I hope they remained in character. I know Hiccup was crying, but there were times in the movie where I thought he was going to and who else could he cry to without looking like a sissy in front of other Vikings? Yeah he's the savior, but to act in such a way in a Viking village… eesh. I do know that also Toothless is projected quite snobbish toward other dragons and I intended for it that way. He certainly is no social butterfly and he is possessive over food and such so he probably "doesn't play nice well with others".

Thanks for reading!


	2. He Will Be the Only

Nothing really new to be noted for this story other than you all knock me off my feet by how special you all make me feel! I am so pleased that you all like my story so much and I will do my best to keep in the groove. Toothless will seem a little different, off. (he's supposed to) That is because he is coming to terms with his "Carnivor Confusion" which is a trope applied in several movies. Basically it means that while Toothless is a meat eater -a _human _eater- he decides to care and protect his natural prey. This is conflicting, his instincts and thoughts say eat, but his heart says nurture and protect. Enjoy his angst!

Unlike my other stories, this story will continue to be from Toothless' s POV, I will do my best to keep in character of the previous chapter. This is not a possible out come for MVB, it has a similar plot, but this is the worst case scenario. So don't think that this is connected to the other story, its not.

**Warnings**: A little blood so this story will remain T. I'm honestly a little leery about moving into M territory. I can write an M fic, with all the lovely blood and gore, but for some reason I feel like I should hold back on that.

**Rating:** As I said above, this is a solid T

**Listening**: Not really important but it helps you viewers understand the mood I was going for. Guardian Angel- the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, My Last Breath- Evanescence, and Lofi- The Exies, and strangely You'll Be in My Heart- Phil Collins (Again) (grin) love these songs but I don't own them. If only I could possess some of their talent! I'm going to put the lyrics to You'll Be in My Heart because the words are so perfect for these two.

Note: Am I the _only_ one that absolutely adores that Tv tropes and idioms website?

Extra note: Those that like slash will find this mildly slashy. If you don't like that the keep in mind Heterosexual Life Partners. Those who like friendship will find themselves swimming in it. Those that like both are in for a treat. I hope everyone enjoys this; and about the soul-mate comment (you'll read it)

Soul Mate: **somebody close to somebody else: **somebody with whom somebody else naturally shares deep feelings and attitudes.

Love: 1. **feel tender affection for somebody: **to feel tender affection for somebody

2.**show kindness to somebody: **to feel and show kindness and charity to somebody

3. **very strong affection: **an intense feeling of tender affection and compassion

4. **passionate attraction and desire**

Too often, we think of a soul-mate as a lover. But I have soul mates in the form of my best friend, both of us girls; and both of us straight. So for those of the viewers that dislike slash, a soul mate doesn't have to mean your in bed with them. (grin) I hope that's enough warning for everyone. If you're still here, keep rolling.

Only Mine- Chapter Two

He Will Be the Only

_____ present night____

There is a saying that there is a soul mate out there in the world for everyone. That no matter what you were or where you lived you could connect deeply with someone and become a soul-mate. I was beginning to hold tightly to this saying, like a dying creature in the desert begging for rain to the gods.

Perhaps, I could even wish a little more, or would that be too greedy? Would I be considered selfish, my sweet human, if I wished for you to a soul mate? That we could transcend the barrier of who and what we are to accept that we were each other's balance? We are the same, perfect for each other's faults, and you balance me in ways I had only dreamed of.

I looked toward the sparkling night sky, my claws digging deeply into the ground with a slightly helpless snarl. My bright green eyes were staring intently at the Town Hall. My human had walked in there willingly, albeit, looking for all the world like he was going to his death. I would have followed -I'd follow him anywhere- if not for these chains!

______several nights ago______

It had been late when the order came, and it was not Stoick's voice that was jumped to be obeyed. "Take them boys!"

I had been sleeping at the foot of my humans bed, enjoying his soft breathing; reassurance that he was still with me. I was terrified -even a Night Fury can be afraid- that I would wake up one day and no longer hear that soft thrumming heartbeat.

Humans lived so shortly; a blink of an eye really. A Viking's lifespan even shorter, but I knew even as I accepted his love and trust… someday he would be gone. I always felt the anger deep in my heart. Bubbling like molten lava until it consumed my thoughts; and melted my brain.

I watched him, all the time now, eager to fill my need to see him; to memorize him so that when I could no longer see him physically, I would still be able to hold him close. A downed dragon is a dead dragon. When he dies -not for a long time if I have any say in it- I will most likely die myself. I could never allow another to ride upon my back; that was my human's spot solely.

The other dragons had noticed my oddness, a few braver ones asking me what on Earth could possibly shake such a fierce dragon. I ignored them of course, I had nothing to say to lower dragons, but the question had stuck like a thorn in my side, wiggling deeper between my scales to get at the skin beneath. It was a poisoned thorn, it made me feverish and frantic; a half-sick queasiness that left my heart tight.

I had an idea of what could turn a snarling and noble dragon -such as myself- into a weak simpering lump of what used to be a dragon; now more senseless than a dog. It is the feeling that stops me from diving deep into the ocean, to dislodge my slim human rider. It is the feeling that causes my natural desire to maim all creatures unlike me -humans- to be calmed; to the point where the familiar bloodlust was now a thing of the past.

It is the emotion that holds me still from snapping at the tiny Viking children that _insist_ on climbing the, "Nig' Fwery!" as though I were some organic hill. It is what keeps me from snarling each time my human slips from my back and steps on my tail-tip with his metal foot.

Love. Unadulterated, all-encompassing, all-consuming, never-going-to-be-the-same-again love. Love that could quell the devilish side of me and could bring out a playful side that even I was unaware of, and its _my_ body. There was no holding it back, and no running from it; in the end I could only bow to the might of my emotions, something of which had never happened. Never before my human. Nothing before this insignificant insect that crawled across the earth for only a few decades; scuttling underfoot.

Compared to humans, I might as well be a god, able to destroy them so easily, and to live for so many of their generations. The nearly impossible had become possible; the god traded everything: power, independence, freedom. Just so it could wrap around a certain insect and never let it go. I imagined myself acting like one of the human children of the village that spent the brief summer nights catching little bugs that lit up. Some in their over-zealousness would capture one and hold on; for too long.

I didn't want to crush my human, but there was no doubt that he needed me as much as I needed him. The little slip of human came to me when he was depressed and I held him in my arms, cocooned within my wings just like when we had fallen after the battle with the Queen(1). He was always tripping, and though I caught him every time, I could tell he was in pain; and it was a pain that I couldn't soothe away. My human, mine…

I suppose in retrospect I should have known, known that their were other tribes of Vikings. In fact, I did know, but the memories of my past were very pleasantly dulled now; to the point that I only remembered it later.

When the door to the house had been kicked in nearly of it hinges; I woke up in a spitting rage. My human was asleep and their was no one that should be coming in this late; my human's sire had already retired to bed.

And since the boy was asleep, I could feel the never-to-disappear rage well up free from the gentle persuasion of Hiccup, who had always held it back. The first of the humans that walked in was large, bulky, and stinking of his long journey. The disgusting human scent of sweat wafting up my sensitive nostrils and cause me to see red.

"Jokull, the beast is living with them!" Came the incredulous roar.

Jokull scoffed as he pushed into through the door. "No tru' Viking would ever allow ah dragon in their village, let alone their home! We will fix this!"

As screams and shouts rose up all over the village, Hiccup startled in his bed. In the darkness, I could see the look of confusion and horror on his face. From behind us I could hear my human's sire stumbling about in the dark; he burst from his room fairly bristled.

"Wha' in Odin's great beard is going on-" The man started but was cut off.

"Stoick the Vast, in violation of everything Vikings hold dear, we are going to solve your "pest" problem. The other Viking leaders from the tribes have decided that your village has gone mad; perhaps something in the water?"

Stoick snarled. "You have no business on my island. I suggest you leave now, I do not want to fight brothers."

The two had a small stare show-down. I had crept back until my body was positioned in front of the bed; guarding the being that was now crouching behind me. I didn't want him to touch me, not right now. Right now I needed the rage to keep me sharp and on my toes, and I knew that when he touched me; prolonged contact meant a pleasant sinking sensation. I arched slightly and pushed him back, I hacked out a growl and nodded slightly to behind the bed. For a moment I thought my human would resist, but at my urging he rolled over and hid in the space between the wall and his bed.

With that small matter aside, I turned my attention to the still silent humans. I could feel the atmosphere of the room was tense and thick; I was waiting for it…

"I'm givin' ya one last chance to leave out o' here." Stoick warned, his own human ears no doubt catching the sounds of his villagers panicked yells; and dragon screeches.

"And I'm saying," Jokull flicked his dark hair out of his face, "That you can surrender and live."

They met with a clash that resounded loud enough to leave my ears aching. As interesting as this display of dominance between the human males was, I spotted the second form creeping closer, ready to jump into the two other human's fight. Well, I could handle him with little trouble at all, two against one was unfair. I pointedly ignored the fact that a Night Fury against a human was much more so, but I didn't want to think about it. Gods, what had the human youth done to me? Guilt? Thinking about the unfairness of the fight?

In the dragon world, everything was unfair. You had to survive however you could. No matter how you win a fight, the important thing is that you won and the other creature lost. You guarded the food you got with your life and didn't feel _bad_ about it if the other creature near you had no food. You dealt with it, that was the way life was; that was the way my life used to be…

I snarled deep in the back of my throat, capturing the second man's attention as I slinked closer, a moving shadow. He was scared of me, he's never seen a Night Fury before, I could smell the repulsive scent of his sweat, the shameful smell of his fear. I reveled in it, I leapt shrieking like a banshee. My claws unsheathed completely and my teeth were ready to tear. I hit him with such force, the man didn't know what hit him. He managed to shield my first furious blow, but not the second.

I wasted no time in going for the kill; no matter how insignificant they seemed, the hideous little worms always found some way to injure me when I didn't pay attention or fought too long. I just couldn't afford to be injured right now; not with the village under attack and my small human so vulnerable.

The blood felt odd beneath my claws and splattered on my hide; odd like when a human found an article of clothing long forgotten and slipped it on; only to find it didn't quite fit the way it used to. It was my opinion that clothes were terrible inventions all of their own; what being willingly submitted to have their movements so restricted?

I flicked my gaze up as my -that's right _**mine**_**-** human's sire dislodged his axe from the dead man's chest. The bearded man looked back when he felt my stare, we locked eyes for a brief moment before he nodded and charged out the door, his war cry bolstering his fighting Vikings and their dragons.

____early present day___

There had been chaos all the night, but in the end Stoick's tribe won. How could they not with superior -superior to humans anyway- dragons fighting alongside them? This was the home of dragons now as well as men, and I have never known a dragon not to fight to the death to protect what is considered theirs.

In his rage, the leader of this village demanded the leaders from the other tribes come and speak like true Vikings; to face him. I found myself at least feeling a surmountable beginning of respect for the large male human. It was good that he assert his dominance to the other tribes, how dare they attack my human's brethren and what gave them such a right to decide how to govern a tribe that was not even under their rule?

On the back of such a devastating loss, and the unsaid fear the other tribes had that Stoick would use his dragons to take over their villages, the gave in. The other leaders had no choice; and came. When they had arrived on the island, I thought that it was rather ridiculous the way they tried to seem more fierce; like putting bone in their beards; necklaces of dragon teeth around their insignificant necks, and spikes abounded from every item of clothing. To me they were nothing. I snarled as they passed by me; humored by their panicked looks.

My human had been at the front to greet them; kind and soft-spoken. He was lucky I didn't push him into the water for being so mollifying;, but I figured I'd just have to in and get him after, so I didn't. I had felt him put his arms around my neck, "Toothless, you have to be good."

I snorted and nearly pulled away. I was not some creature that you told "be good" to. Reticently, I watched the seven of them, used to be eight but the large human had killed that one, walk up into the village's town hall.

My human followed behind the procession; saying nothing but tossing me soft gentle smiles that made my claws unsheathe and dig deep into the earth beneath them. I know my thoughts and feelings were turbulent, but I -in my youth and inexperience- was unable to merge the two conflicting presences. My thoughts said kill, maim, break free; run! My heart said embrace, cherish, love; give in! It all swirled around until I wasn't sure if I'd always been so confused, or if that was a more recent -more to do with a human- thing.

I came to stand outside the closed doors, my red-haired human beside me, his fingers barely touching my shoulder; but it was enough for my entire body to hum and purr at his attentions -split as it was- all the while my mind protesting, 'Where is your pride Night Fury!?' It roared at me.

Ah pride, where was it indeed. If you happened to see it, be so kind -or I'll eat you- and do tell it to return, its owner misses it. I used to think that pride was everything, but until you stumble head-first into a relationship, do you realize that it means nothing at all. In a relationship it was even better to cast aside pride -I hoped it was anyway- because I was sure I had none left. How could I keep it after allowing myself to be saddled and ridden like a common horse? Keep it after I allowed those slim hands to pat, scratch, and buff every inch of my hide without so much as a single snarl; instead purring away like a kitten? How could I have any pride left in me after being content to curl up at the feet of my -my sweet tempered human- and sleep like a dog at the foot of his master? Yet, there had to be _some_ left somewhere, lurking inside my handsome body.

Perhaps, I could allow just this _one_ human to be my equal. Could I regain some of my old vanity back then? I must be missing something. How could my human -as adorable and perfectly delicious as he was- exude such control over every dragon he came into contact with; as lithe and small as he was?

Due to my distraction at the time, I wasn't aware of the passing of time. I felt Hiccup settle down in some nearby grass, his eyes glowering at the large oak doors. I curled up at his side, my tail making a half-circle around his diminutive form.

Maybe I was not giving him enough credit? My eyes swept over the form I knew so well, one that I had burned the image of into my mind. He was not big like the rest of his village, but he had the power to control dragons. He was not a great swordsman, but managed to bring down one of the largest dragons I've ever had the displeasure of "meeting". I know he didn't do it alone -I had been in spectacular form that day- but to have such a plan and execute it to such near flawlessness; it took something that I couldn't place my -very elegant- claw on.

I perked up when I felt the being of my thoughts lean gently against my side. I, without thought, unfurled a wing to cup around him slightly. 'See! There, that right there!' My mind screams, 'what did I just do that for?'

I wanted him comfortable… and my body just reacted. I couldn't begrudge myself too much as the boy began to pet and scratch at the hide beneath my ears. I purred lowly and lowered my head to give him more access, 'You call yourself a dragon? You mind as well change your name to Puss.' My more evil side was not happy today.

A small growl mingled with my purr causing my -hmmm he smelled good today- human to pause, "You're in a mood today, huh buddy?"

I ignored the jesting tone of his voice and yawned. Making sure to give him quite a view of, my exceptionally well-formed and pearly white, teeth.

He gave me a slight shove, "Oh don't worry, I know you're a big scary Night Fury. You must be on break though, from being ferocious; you look rather lazy right now."

Yes, that's it! Of course my intelligent -and just too adorable- human would hit the nail on the head of the issue that had been pestering my days. I was taking a break from life itself. I, if any dragon ever did, deserved a break from just _being _a dragon. Too much violence and not enough of this.(2)

Not enough love from a being that truly cares; and wanted your happiness. Because when the man-child -I adore him- was happy; I realized that so was I.

The doors opened to the hall and the hulking leader with two elders walked out. The man walked up to us and stared down at his offspring. "Hiccup, son." he started, but stalled, "I- uh, the others…" Unusual for the normally blunt man.

I felt the object of my protection stand up, "What dad? What's wrong?"

I didn't like the way the large human's eyes flick toward me before landing on something else; like a sparrow hopping about. I narrowed my own toxic-green eyes, a soundless snarl marring my maw.

"They'd like a demonstration son."

The thin human looked surprised. "A demonstration? What do you mean by demonstration?"

The red-bearded man sighed; looking skyward. "They wish t' see if you can prove tha' the dragons are truly tame."

My -_mine-_ human relaxed abruptly, "Well that isn't so bad. Why don't we use Snotlout's Nightmare? She's pretty scary and listens so well… what? Why are you making that face? Dad? Dad!?"

The brute of a man finally looked down at his son, "They want the ultimate proof. They want to see your Night Fury obey you."

I recoiled like a cobra, snarling and spitting. I belonged to no one! I was a wild, I was unconquerable, I will not be- oh, that feels so good.

I felt my eyes go half-lidded and I slumped breathing heavily. I felt slim, warm hands slide beneath my face and then I was looking into those jade-green irises. "Toothless, please! Please do this for me, for all of us here. They need to know that dragons can like you can be trusted!"

Dragons… like…me… ah that's right. I'm apparently was still considered a dragon to the humans.

Curse you, you damned human. Curse you and your damned sweet face, your earnest desire to help others. Damn you and your soft, gentle hands; your light, calming voice. I felt the meager resolve I had built in last few moments crumble like a log burned for so long it just burst into ashes.

I dropped my ears, my tail lashed; my body language screaming out my defiance. His face, pink, fleshy, and so foreign face looked sad, his eyes were twin pools of sorrow. I leaned down and licked smooth cheek, it was all I would allow my traitorous self to do.

"W- what do they want a demonstration of?" The voice was quiet with rage.

The leader nodded to where torches were being set up in a circle. In the middle were thick heavy chains. "They want to see him accept chains."

I felt myself choke on air. There was nothing our species hated more, than to be bound like common livestock. A creature of the sky did _not_ like being grounded; in any manner. As far as my knowledge stretched I'd never known of a dragon to be willingly bound in chains. I still could feel the weight of the cursed things from when I had been forced into them.

I felt a touch, and looked down. My Hiccup, was looking at me with an odd look. Though his face was determined and accepting, his eyes told me another. They told me, 'I won't be mad if you leave. I won't blame you if you run.'

A strange calmness enveloped me then. Run? _That_ would be shameful. I had a moment of clarity as I began to walk toward the circle; the flickering flames bouncing shadows of the awaiting crowd's faces.

Why was I so upset by this? Was it not more embarrassing to be unable to fly without a human to help, than to do something one disliked in the name of love and friendship? Hiccup, my gift from the gods -the ones we dragons cared for anyway-, had risked a lot to give me back my flight; something no dragon could ever live without. Even if they were kept fed, watered, and cared for; they would still die from the acceptance that they'd never fly again.

He, that small insignificant human; had given me back life itself, given me love and affection, given everything to me. The least I could do was lay the tatters of my pride at his feet and do this for him; for me.

I knew now that if I didn't give in and allow myself to be bound; I would never find peace in my thoughts. I would never be able to join my predatory thoughts with my loving heart and be comfortable in the bond I held with my human.

He was my human, but I was his dragon. Not because he had bested me in a fight, not because he'd entrapped me and forced me, I was his dragon because… I wanted to be his dragon. I wanted to be the one he looked to for reassurance, looked to for protection, and be the only one to take him into the sky.

I allowed the cold hands of the other Vikings to wrap me up, chain after chain, docilely; with nothing more than an occasional glare thrown at one of them. For the most part I kept my eyes on Hiccup, on his kind face, focused on his loving heart. A Viking heart that had found room for me, a dragon, in its recesses. A heart, that for some strange reason, had shown love for me; worry for me the devil of the night. A terrible Night Fury.

_________present night__________

So here I lay. The leaders of each of the respective tribes -though had not apologized- admitted that if a Night Fury could be trained to listen; then there was merit in keeping dragons about.

A few hours ago, I would have been furious at such a comment, but I tilted my head slyly and gurgled a little. Oh little humans, I am not _tame_; unless my human is nearby… then you mind as well call me "puss".

I watched as the door opened and my Hiccup scurried out; moving as fast as he could with his limp.

He collapsed on his knees in front of me and began to furiously pull on the chains. "I can't believe that you actually did this."

I blinked. Well, I _certainly _could. We dragons never break our vows.

My Hiccup smiled at me, "You stubborn dragon, thank you. There will be no war and the other tribes are even asking about how to train a dragon!"

I purred as he continued to struggle to pull off the chains. The other humans, those five that insisted on flying beside us, were suddenly there as well; all of them pulling off the heavy metal. I felt myself smirk a dragon smirk. They say I'm the one that's trained… obviously humans were under the impression, that it was a two-way street.

When the last chain dropped and hit the ground, I unfurled my wings. 'Flying, now!' I snapped at Hiccup, carefully, and the infuriating human -my infuriating human- smiled hopping up without a word. I heard a click and I spread my great wings; we were airborne.

The wind whipped past our faces and I felt exhilarated, enjoying my flight for the first time in months. I dipped down and splashed into the water, "Hey you overgrown Terror, what was that for?"

Break's over; time to live again.

___________end______________

Hope you all like it, this was another tough chapter to write. The comment above where Toothless said perfectly delicious, that would be more Carnivore Confusion ( I didn't make it up, Google it). Humans in this story taste good, there for, since in Toothless's fawning mind Hiccup is perfect, he would be perfectly delicious. (they're magically delicious! Hmm, I don't own that either… what do I own?

Hmm, it's also hard to explain the way I wanted this chapter to turn out. ( I think I managed to capture the vision in my head). In the first chapter their bond was easy, but in this one I wanted to realistically give an idea of how hard it would be for something so proud and wild, a dragon especially, to give itself fully; to accept the term of being trained. Toothless in the movie, to me, came across as a rather aggressive dragon with a good personality underneath that had never known human kindness. But that aggression doesn't just disappear because he's made a human friend, he's still a dragon and not human. Though his heart recognizes that he could have a bond after being alone for so long, that it yearns for it. But then you run into the problem of the mind and the heart out existing out of sync. Does that make any sense to anyone other than me?

And really, what could be worse to a creature of the sky; then chains holding them down?

After all we humans seem to have a knack for domesticating practically everything; our loving demeanors maybe?

Oh well…

1) The part where Toothless opened one wing back and then the other. I'm talking about a similar embrace.

You'll Be in My Heart- Phil Collins ( I do not own and am making no money… damn it)

Come stop your crying

It will be all right

Just take my hand Hold it tight

I will protect you from all around you

I will be here

Don't you cry

For one so small, you seem so strong

My arms will hold you, keep you safe and warm

This bond between us

Can't be broken

I will be here

Don't you cry 'Cause you'll be in my heart

Yes, you'll be in my heart

From this day on

Now and forever more

You'll be in my heart

No matter what they say

You'll be here in my heart, always

Why can't they understand the way we feel

They just don't trust what they can't explain

I know we're different but, deep inside us We're not that different at all

And you'll be in my heart

Yes, you'll be in my heart

From this day on

Now and forever more

Don't listen to them' Cause what do they know

We need each other, to have, to hold

They'll see in time I know

When destiny calls you You must be strong

I may not be with you But you've got to hold on

They'll see in time I know We'll show them together

'Cause you'll be in my heart

Yes, you'll be in my heart

From this day on, Now and forever more

Oh, you'll be in my heart No matter what they say

You'll be in my heart, always Always

Just look over your shoulder (3X)

I'll be there all ways.


	3. Only A Human

I thank all of my wonderful reviewers for the support you all have given me; you are the force that drives pushes me on to do better and work faster. I always will appreciate the wonderful people that both take the time to read (even without reviewing), and those that also take the time to review. This will be (probably) the last chapter, because honestly, after this chapter I will have no clue as to how to continue it. As thus, I will tentatively declare this completed.

**NOT A CHARACTER DEATH FIC! **Sorry to put that in there like that, just had to make sure you all read it. Hehe

**IMPORTANT**: There will be a dragon in this chapter that was only in the books and not the movie, it is called a Saber-Tooth Driver Dragon. The description given is that it is pure white, much larger than any lion, and it has saber fangs with wicked long claws. Supposedly, it would only live in cold temperatures because it is used to pull sleds, but since in the movie, the dragons are just now settling into being pets, this breed has not been domesticated to do so. I'm going to leave out the "driver" in the name in the story, however, because that is most likely a name added to it by Vikings because they drive sleds. (duh to me, cause I mentioned that already)

'_this be dragonspeak'_

**Disclaimer**: Since I am writing on this site, I have given up all rights to anything I write (or that's the gist of what I'm getting). The rights of ownership for the movie go to DreamWorks, and the book belongs to the lovely Cressida Cowell. I do think I own the plot (plot what plot?) I do own my two wonderful dogs, they are amusing me with their rough-housing right now as I type.

**Ratings**: This is a **high ****teen** rating. I would even move it to mature due to all the blood, but I'm not sure if you'd all be able to find it. So, I'll move this story to that rating after a few days.

**Warnings**: I always warn for blood, but this is going to have a lot of it. Some cussing here and there; nothing you haven't heard at high school and college; nothing to graphic _there_. And yeah okay, I'll admit it. This is mildly slashy for those who have their goggles on. I rather think of it as a very close friendship, and for those who read my below note, will understand.

_**Note: **_For those of you that have read Anne McCaffrey's work for the "Dragons of Pern" (which her creative genius is not limited to) then many will understand the love you can have for someone that is the other half to your soul, or a friend that you are so familiar with you no longer even need to speak for you both to know what the other is thinking. I'm not ripping anything from Pern, in the effect that no dragon in Berk can really mind speak with their rider, and the dragons of Berk are not so soul bound as the ones in Pern; that when a rider dies, so does the dragon. Neither are they as intelligent. I only bring up the wonderful work that is Pern, to try and give people an idea of the bond I'm attempting to create between Hiccup and Toothless. Another great series that also conveys this idea of deep bonds between rider and dragon, would be Naomi Novik (another wonderful author that I adore and would give up _a lot_ to meet) and her books of Temeraire; again though. My work for this fic is nothing similar, considering the dragons in this fic can't talk (outside of dragonese) and very few share the possessiveness that Toothless has. With that said, I wish you all good reading.

If you DO NOT LIKE THIS, please don't waste your time flaming me! If you can't handle this, then just don't read it, okay?

Chapter Three: Only a Human

What are Homo Sapiens exactly? Are they glorified apes that have decided it was more comfortable walking on two legs and have learned to speak a completely incomprehensible language?

Better yet, what are _humans_ exactly?

They are flesh, skin-and-bone, and muscle, and red-slick blood all wrapped up in a pink -nearly- hairless package. They are messy, they are emotional, they are irrational in everything they attempt and everything they do. They are small and insignificant, they have no fangs to bite with, nor claws with which to scratch. They have no excessive strength, to tear up huge trees or amazing speed to run down their prey. They have no wings to lift them from their worshipped ground, and no gills to help them swim beneath their beloved ocean.

They are the most greedy creature, taking more and more and more until there is nothing left of whatever they covet -hearts, land, love, or, treasure- but misery and the vague impression of what once was whole. Yet, if you were to ask the lions of the plains, the tigers of the jungles, the wolves of the forests, and now the dragons of the skies; they would all tell you the same.

Never trust a human no matter how sweet they seem. Never give into the mind-lulling easy confidence that a predator begins to feel when in the presence of such easy prey. Never ignore them, no matter how unassuming they may be; nor how powerless. Because when you least expect it, when you have dropped your guard and have ignored your perfectly sensible instincts; they attack.

It is laughable and so terribly ironic, that this _beast_ with no natural weapons and with the delicate flesh bodies they have, could scare the mightiest of beasts. That these resilient little cockroaches scurry about underfoot; lowering you wariness of them, they _force _you to acknowledge them and then you began to grow used to their presence. They will destroy you without lifting a single weapon. Because humans may be able to attack you physically, but they are _terrors_ when it comes to mentally beating you down.

Before you know it, the lion is in a cage; being fed hunks of meat and begging like a common housecat for attention and more food. The tiger is being pampered and petted and scratched at the side of great -and painfully weak- emperors; eager for its next enormous bowl of cream. The wolves are being collared with ropes and lavished with love only humans could ever produce. The canines delightedly pull sleds, put up with every hit and kick they receive for being "bad", and they come back for more; bending to the will of these mighty creatures known as humans. Unfathomable, these predators could turn and rip apart their "masters" with such ease, but they don't. They submit to their beatings, their punishments, their gifts, their affections, their _love._

What are humans?

They are the most deadly of all predators. Armed with nothing but a kind touch, a soft voice, and a loving nature; they have killed creatures more powerful than even I. Killed them without ever shedding a drop of crimson life-blood, killed their instincts, killed their very wild spirits that made them untamable and made them free.

I am no better than those other poor idiot beasts that have bowed before the humans and their terrifying depthless tidal wave of love. If humans had anything considered a sort of power, it would be their ability to tame anything; or at least force submission. I have no idea how to resist, even if I wanted to.

I remember the day I allowed my body to be chained, while at the same time my spirit was released. I remember my human's face and the warmth of his joy. I remember the scents and my own terror; the idea that I could be killed without so much of a thought and unable to break free to protect myself. The humans could do anything to you, once you were in chains. Had you asked me two years ago; to willingly go into chains, I would have killed you on the spot. I was a dragon, no common horse or oxen that would be yoked to a cart and expected to pull about the meager weight of humans.

That was before I was caught in the age-old trap humans set so innocently; so absent-mindedly. That would be what I would consider the most unforgivable, the most infuriating. It was as if the humans had really no idea that they held such a power in their insignificant hands, and that with a fish and a smile I had been so wholly overcome.

I wouldn't trade it for anything. Not for all the cod in the sea, nor all the glittering gold in the world. I would not trade for anything his soft smile. I would never trade anything for his warm hands stroking my sides and wings. I could never give him up. Does that mean that I have become truly tame? Have I forsaken everything that made me what I once was? Am I still a dragon, or some twisted shadow that looks a little like a dragon?

I still felt the power in my limbs. When I walked, I could still feel the strength I held in my claws. I felt the sinewy grace I had always been proud of; I could still crush trees, prey, and bones with my serrated teeth. So what was different now, that made me feel so strangely unbalanced?

Even now, beneath the slender trunk of a pine tree; with the shadows wrapping all about me, I was overwhelmed by him. His scent carried to me over the wind, his laughter as he led a group of even _smaller_ humans around the forest echoing back to my ears, he talking about the proper way to saddle a dragon.

Saddle. That word should have sent shivers up my serpentine spine and ice to slide down my throat into my gullet. I felt nothing, but an infuriating pride. A ridiculous pride for my _human_, that he was being given such responsibilities; that he was in charge of teaching the offspring of his tribe.

It was ridiculous because I should only ever feel pride for myself. Ridiculous that I was unconcerned that this boy-human was teaching other humans how to saddle members of my species. That I was comfortable and content to watch as he showed his village how to lead my kind into servitude. Perhaps, a few years ago, I would have been angry and furious with my unconcerned attitude at the present. But again all I could feel were his piercing eyes upon my scaled bulk, as he scanned the shadows for me; making sure I was nearby.

He needn't have bothered himself so. Even if I was able to fly on my own, I would still be right here. Breathing in his fresh forest scent, watching him, and watching over him.

My glowing eyes scanned the heavens for no reason other then to observe fluffy clouds and to imagine flying with my human through them.

That's another problem you don't learn about when you finally give in to a human's care and affection. There is no handbook made up of things that you were no longer going to care about, and things that you would loose. Your mind becomes filled with very little of what it used to be filled with before your contact with humans. I was no longer filled with blood-lust, only with a gut-clenching desire to have my head resting peacefully on my human's thin, but oh so warm lap. I was no longer consumed with the singular thought of finding enough food to keep myself healthy. I now was only consumed by the singular thought of my human, and filled with the mind boggling fear that he would grow tired of flying around on a "broken" dragon.

In the past, I might have believed that it would be _me_ that grew bored with _him. _But how the mighty have fallen, for I was reduced to acting like a simpering dragonet at the very fragment of thought that he'd leave me.

I would die. Not just from never again flying, which was certainly enough to kill any dragon; but I could never accept another rider. My human had ruined all others of his race for me; with his gentle hands, and the way he knew which position to twitch his foot without really even being aware of it. I would die from knowing what unconditional love and affection was, then having it denied from me; as he lavished it onto another lesser dragon. I would grow insane and out of my mind, from the jealousy and the inability to act upon it, because I only wanted him happy.

This was the ultimate indication that I was no longer who I once was. The very idea that I could give up what _I_ wanted, just to see him smile and be happy, that was unheard of among dragons. Letting go of the fierce possessiveness I felt for him, to allow him the choice of riding another dragon, just to make sure he would smile.

My long ears drooped in the dappled sunlight.

'What have I become?!' My mind wailed from grief born of mourning for the lost piece of myself.

Strangely, I knew even through this brief period of sadness, it would not be missed later on. For even as that part of me was dying back like a hideous weed, a new part of my soul was growing up to replace it. A heavy feeling in my heart that filled the hole left behind to near bursting. It dulled my senses in a way Kitty Grass could never hope to do.

For a creature like me to be accepted and loved, then for me to in turn learn what this "love" all the other beasts talked about was; I was rather drunk off the feeling. The world seemed to be brighter and enhanced; the colors more vivid then I could ever remember. And just maybe the sound of the humans were not so ear-splitting as I had once thought. I had no idea how to pin down the feeling, but it gave me a reason to live again. Not to just _survive_, hunting down livestock and razing villages; but a real reason to live.

"-So, remember that your dragon will respond in turn with how you treat them. Treat them well and they will treat you well. Beat them, and they will probably eat you." My human's lips quirked, for he knew as well as I did; he could beat me within an inch of death and I'd still jump in front of an arrow for him.

"Any questions?"

There was a scramble as the young children all practically clambered up to the lanky teen. Their young high-pitched voices all jabbering at once, and I lowered my head to my claws. It wasn't so bad, but it was still annoying.

"-why do dragons let us ride them?"

My eyes lazily opened and I gazed at the young man-child, 'What an intelligent little human weed.' I thought.

My human seemed to really digest that question. His face troubled, his forehead wrinkled in thought. I wanted to soothe away the creases with a purr, to hold him between my arms and I wished I could give him the answer, but the language barrier could probably never be really breached.

We allowed unsightly humans to fly upon our backs because we could never deny them. We dragons allow them to scramble up, kicking us in odd places, sharp toed boots ripping off scales, but we'd never dare to buck them off; and not from fear of our lives. We allow them to fly with us because we dragons knew of love now, and we felt it in every touch bestowed to us. We dragons are understandably possessive, and once we are given something, we are loath to give it back. With dragons now experiencing this phenomenon other animals already seemed to know about, we were unwilling to let the feeling go.

"They-," the russet haired boy began thoughtfully, "allow us on their back's because we are their friends, their riders. We are a team, a team of dragon and human, together we become invincible in the skies."

The child blinked up at his teacher, a slight gleam of the beginning of getting the gist in the blue eyes, but not the full blown flash of understanding.

The lanky teen seemed to be displeased by the answer, his own answer, given to the children. He strived for a better explanation, "If our roles were reversed, Toothless and I, I would allow Toothless to ride upon my back; because when we are in the sky, nothing else matters. When we are on the ground, I worry about whether he is comfortable, and whether he is happy. Until you have your own dragon, you won't be able to truly understand." The teen finally said, still dissatisfied with his answer; he seemingly knew that there was more, but how could he express the emotion and the bond to children?

"Come on then, we need to be getting back-"

A screech of fear went up, and I was on my feet immediately, scanning the surroundings. In front of me stood a rather rare dragon for this area. A Saber-Tooth Dragon. How had he snuck up on the group? I should have scented him. The male, I could smell his pungent musk where I was standing, was as large as me despite the bulk I had packed on in the last two years.

Had he shown up while I was day sleeping? I was so foolish, so at peace to have been so caught of guard, and now it would get very ugly.

He was snarling in challenge toward us, his long fangs glinting in the dimmed light of the forest; severe looking spikes jutted out each side of his skull. His incredibly dangerous claws dug furrows into the loamy earth as he clenched and unclenched them. His entire stance screamed his danger and his aggression.

His wild eyes searched and then were glued to the forms of the small group of Viking children. They truly would have been easy prey had I not been standing there. I felt the most indescribable feeling shudder through me. It was like I had plunged into the deepest part of the ocean. My heart felt like the dragon in front of me had already plunged his long claws into my chest and torn out the bloody, beating organ. I let out a furious roar that resounded through the forest, surprising even myself in its blood-thirstiness.

I took two running leaps and I positioned my body in front of the scared humans, the scent of their fear raising up to my sensitive nose; my human's own fear spurred my pulse to raise up to unknown speeds.

The white dragon in front of me had heavy forequarters and hindquarters, much like the large cat it was named after. Its neck heavy and muscled to provide the force needed for its large jaws to give a firm bite.

A long moment passed between us, a building of adrenaline welling up inside my aching innards. Quick as a flash he was leaping at me, his deep roar forced from his gaping jaws. I answered with a roar of my own and leapt up, my thick forearms and strong claws slashing forward; I balanced easily on my hind legs.

I heard my human's frantic screams at me to stop, but for once his voice didn't seem to reach me as easily as it usually did. This was not a fight against his hulking sire, where a hand upon my chest would still me. This was a fight to the death with a dragon that _would _tear my human apart given the chance. His eyes were what my eyes had been like once; wild, free, and deadly. He would feel no guilt in chewing up every bone in my human's body, he would relish sucking every drop of his warm blood out of his corpse.

The male slashed down my side, and I screeched in fury and pain. I opened my mouth and spat blue fire at him, his own answering scream of pain delighted me. I felt a red haze slipping over my mind; I slashed and I bit, using back claws and front claws to grapple, to maim.

Every time my opponent's claws flayed my scaled hide or his wicked teeth clamped down with unbelievable force, it only took the thought of _my_ human's body being slashed and bit apart, for me to throw him off and go for his neck.

He backed off; he'd never truly faced a dragon that was fighting for someone other than itself, but it was already too late. The wild and very stupid dragon had clawed right through my flesh straight into that wild side of my own instincts. He'd ripped to ribbons my careful control I had kept over my own aggressive nature and I had mortally wounded him in the wake of its release.

I knew that I was doing no better, and I would most likely die of blood loss; but seeing the broken and hacked up body of the other male soothed it all away. Why had the warrior Vikings not shown up yet? As I turned to look back at the group, I saw my human's horrified face as he took in the graveness of my wounds.

"Toothless, Toothless, please we have to get you back to the village. Oh Odin, you're so hurt. It's alright, you'll be okay. Y-y- you'll be alright!"

Hmm, his frantic ramblings were starting to drift away, and all I could think off was even when he was upset and crying; his voice still soothed away my rage and pain. I would have been quite content to have laid down right there, and enjoy a nice nap. But even as my legs buckled beneath me, and my human ran to my side; I felt my instincts awaken and my senses prickle.

Another flash of white was lurking just a little distance away. I growled, my voice sounding like a landslide and my tail shoved my human -oh, do stop crying, I'm alright see?- away while I reinforced my battle stance.

'_You cruel little house pet. How dare you slay my mate?'_

The female stepped from the shadows, a splash of white amongst the gloom. I snarled unconsciously, _'How dare I? How dare you come here and attack my human companion? Why are you on this island, when you know there are Vikings dwelling here?'_

I hoped we'd finish this conversation soon. My blood was welling up from the gashes in my skin with every pulse of my heart; and my vision was starting to subtly tunnel black.

'_We are here because we _choose _to be here. We answer to no humans and we can live where we like.'_

I snarled again, this time in both pain and annoyance, _'Do as you wish when it comes to the matter of your own death wishes, but leave my human and his village out of it. Now go! Take your mate's body and leave. NOW!'_

The last I growled more than I spoke to her, and she drew herself up, _'I will do no such thing. Are these humans are so important to you, that you would kill your own? I will avenge my mate's death!'_

She leapt with the all-encompassing rage of one that had lost everything, but I felt no pity for her or her mate; they had come _here_. Her claws hit my side, the sharp wicked things digging in like swords; causing more blood to gush free. I roared in pain, and my teeth found her throat. I dug in deep, she dug in deeper. We collapsed writhing in rage against one another; my teeth slowly inching toward her jugular; her claws inching closer to my heart.

I was startled quite suddenly by a small war cry. And I nearly let go when I saw my human raise his sword from its scabbard and leap with a rage all his own at the side of the white dragon. I felt my heart wither -silly beautiful boy, get back! She will kill you. you're no match for either of us- and the sharp metal slid into her side, like a knife through fresh butter.

She screamed a gargled -from my damage to her throat- malicious shriek at the brave -but so stupid- human, _'I WILL DESTROY YOU!'_

I released my hold on her throat; sinew, muscle, and cartilage slipping free. I released her knowing full well I had just given away the upper hand I held in the battle. I turned nearly double on myself to get to my human before-

She batted the teen aside like the tiny -delicate, oh so delicate and small- creature he was, her claws slashing shallowly at him from the right shoulder to his left hip; my tail slammed into her to keep those nasty claws from slicing deep enough to cleave him into thirds. The fainted human was thrown from the force and landed a few feet away. The second his scent, tinged with blood, hit my nose; I felt every coherent thought disappear. My world re-invented itself and I couldn't think straight all that was left was a mantra -kill, Kill, KILL, **KILL**_- _I leapt at her, the pain and bone-weariness I felt melting away. I ignored my wounds as grievous as they were; knowing full well that this final charge would most probably kill me. I fancied for a moment, that I might have been the first dragon ever to exist to cry; but I knew that it was a drop of blood from my eye. Not the sweet-salty water I wished I could produce. My body was broken and laid open in so many places that I was more red than black; more blood than scale; but my heart was more broken and twisted then any physical wound I had.

I attacked her with such a vengeance, that she was wholly unprepared. In that moment my anguish outweighed hers over the loss of her mate. I was a whirling mass of black and red scales, silver- pink tinged claws, and white teeth. Her thunderous cries and bawls did nothing to soothe the internal pain and only drove my rage to new heights; the dark blood of her sprayed through the air and still I was not satisfied.

She had killed him! My human! I would never forgive her, never, never, never, _"NEVER!" _I screeched in torment.

Her body was no longer moving even though I was. I took my helpless rage out on her body; shredding it to indistinguishable bits of gore. I was so lost in myself, that I only barely registered the sounds of pitiful crying.

I paused, one red-stained claw raised and ready to fall once more. I looked back carefully and saw the group of Viking children. Huddled together and sobbing against one another. I felt pity stir, despite my inner tortuous turmoil. My human had been one of those once… I looked back down and was surprised at the destruction of the corpse, really _seeing_ it for the first time; I felt no regret though.

I turned away in disgust and was swallowed in deep sorrow. My aches beginning to make themselves known; the blackness was back. I welcomed the physical pain, it helped to distract from the yawning pit of misery I was falling into. I struggled over to the body of my human -oh, my perfect human. Why did you get in the way?- and I fell, rather than laid, down beside him; curling up weakly.

His body was so still, and I keened in sorrow; why had the world not stopped? No thunder rumbled, no lightning ripped the skies. Why was there no rain to cry for me, since I could not cry myself?

That same small boy from earlier appeared in my vision; creeping slowly closer. I snarled indignantly, how dare he come near us?!

The boy froze in fear, his blue eyes gazing up at me. Our eyes connected, "Please?" they begged me. I snapped at him again, but did not swallow the little thing in two gulps as he came along side.

I heard the other Vikings finally arriving, they should have been here sooner; my wrath targeting them as well. If they'd been here sooner… "Hiccup?!" Came the stunned and fearful shout of my human's sire as the hulking man ran awkwardly toward us.

The other Viking's faces were pictures of horror, despite the many times they had fought a dragon, they'd never been prepared for my wrath. I could smell their fear as they surveyed the dark bloody scene; eyeing me cautiously. The children were rounded up and were being soothed by the warriors; the smell of salty tears filled the air and I gazed back down at my -I'm a failure, I'm so sorry- human.

That strange child had his ear to my human's -so thin, my poor rider- chest. He listened intently, before reaching up with small hands and turning the russet-haired boy's head toward him; now he leaned in close to the face.

"He's alive!" the boy screamed in sheer delight.

My own eyes had closed in a deep weariness, and now they snapped open; my beaten body contorting desperately to turn and look down. I angled my head over his tiny chest and cocked my ears over it, eagerly. I was praying that the child was right -he'd better be or I'm eating him- and the sad thing was I had nothing to pray too; I was a dragon.

Sure enough, there was an incredibly weak pounding of the teen's heart, and I felt myself go numb with relief. 'Alive, he's alive!'

My relief was the final straw for my body. I had lost too much blood, and my body couldn't fight the approaching darkness any longer. I was peaceful, despite the knowledge I probably wouldn't ever wake up again. He was safe… he was safe.

_____________________not the end my friends!___________________

My eyelids felt as though there were rocks hanging from them, every part of my body protesting in pain. I didn't bother to open my eyes; I had no strength, and why would I want to see this terrible after-land? I could smell the scents of village life all around me, and I was disoriented, why would a dead dragon smell a village? Was there pain here in the after-land? What a fitting end for me. After a life of being evil, to not find any peace here in the after-land. Even more torturous was the lingering scent of my human -so close- but I knew he couldn't be here. He was too good, and more importantly, still alive to end up here.

"Hey you."

I froze up, breathless. That voice, no! Why was that voice here? Here in the land of dead wretched beasts like myself? I forced my eyes open then, I _needed_ to see, despite my gripping fear that he'd really be there in front of me.

He was there alright; his perfect face, his lithe body, his emerald irises peering at me. A figment of my thoughts and desires then? Would he disappear if I leaned forward to scent him? I was sure he couldn't be real. The figment of my imagination reached out, a warm hand touched my snout; it chased away the lingering pain and the cold thoughts of death. I couldn't turn from him, my eyes dead-locked with his. It was his touch, and his wonderful scent; it was him, really here. Was I… alive? My heart leapt at the hope, that I was not dead and I could continue to exist; to continue to fly with him.

A small smile flitted across that gentle face, "You silly lizard, nearly getting yourself killed." His words were light, but I could sense repressed emotion in his voice.

He tapped my snout rather fiercely, for my human anyway, and I snorted in surprise. "Don't you _ever_ do that again, do you hear me?" I felt like I had awakened in some surreal world, not the one I was from. Why was he upset with me? I keened in displeasure and worry; anxiously looking down at him.

His face morphed into sadness and he shook his head viciously, "No, no I'm not mad at you… okay I am, but not because of why you think."

Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes, "You really almost died Toothless; you were asleep for two weeks. You never moved and w-we had to force water with blood down your throat. Yo-you almost-," he paused to take a shaky breath and flung his arms over my muzzle, "Oh Odin, you crazy reptile, what would I have done if you'd died?"

My brain was fuzzy from close proximity of my charge, especially since my last few thoughts had been that he'd died; and considering my long sleep…

"If you died protecting me like that, I'd never forgive you! We're partners, why won't you let me try to protect you?"

I opened my eyes to slits, and snorted at him. He pulled back, but did not break contact, "I can protect you!" He declared indignant. My eyes scanned his form, he still had a few bruises up near his shoulders; where his tunic parted, and a few bandages wound up his arms like snakes. I wasn't ignoring him! I merely was distracted... I had to make sure he was really alright.

"I can't protect you the way you can protect me, I don't have any claws or anything… but I can protect you from one thing."

I looked at him again, and his serious -too cute- face. "I can protect you from yourself. From this desire you seem to have to kill yourself in order to save me."

I purred low in the back of my throat and with a steady claw, a claw that seemed to have been washed clean, herded him close. I curled about him, pain be damned to Hel.

This small and insanely powerful human would never know that he'd already succeeded many times over in protecting me. This beguiling, good-natured soul had saved me a long time ago. His heartbeat reached my seeking ears; slowing down now as he relaxed into my side. I felt myself drifting peacefully, as long as that large heart continued to beat; so did mine.

* * *

I hope you all like it and think it's a good ending (unless I continue it, I don't know yet). Umm, yeah I mentioned Hel; the goddess of death. I also mentioned that as a dragon, Toothless had no one to pray to because he is a dragon, and is unsure that if he prayed to Gods the humans pray to, if they'd listen. I could have put in the worship of the constellation Draco, but I didn't because this seems fitting.

If people are wondering why the hell it took so long for the other Vikings to get to them, remember it's a large forest, and they might not have thought the dragons roaring were fighting; since dragonese is probably a mix of: snarls, growls, chirrups, roars, and gurgling noises.

I don't own the thought of Dragonese, that was in the book. I know Hiccup from the book is fluent, but it will take a while for him to learn it, right?

If there are any glaring mistakes in this chapter, let me know in your review.

Think nice and critical! Nice and critical! I love reviews that are nice, critical, or both! Giving me something like, "Eww, ths story sucketh." Yeah, that doesn't cut it. So please, let's be the mature (ish) teens we all are. (still a teen thank you!)

But you know, if I do get a flame, I guess I should still say thank you for typing it out, and say sorry in advance that you didn't like it.

For inspiration I listened to (don't own them):

Vanish- Done by Fader head (I love them)

Naturally- Selena Gomez (completely shocked it was her, but I like it)

I'll try to update my stories once a week on Friday, but I might get them out sooner so keep your eyes peeled.

Peace all!


	4. Only A Beast

_Okay, so when the reviews hit about 93 for this story, I sighed deeply, as I was hit with a very pushy chapter plot bunny. It's like a normal plot bunny, only its the plot for a chapter not a story. And because you all like this so much, I will continue for the sake of my readers! (strikes dramatic pose) A shout out goes to Adm. J. Kirk McGill for a stunning review he left, and another goes to pretty much each wonderful reviewer that left me a review. Damn, you people know how to make me feel awesome! Every review was a great insight into how you felt about the last chapter. That really helps me, because some of you pointed out things, that when I wrote it, I didn't even see! Imagine my surprise when I read a review and find myself saying, "You know, that makes a lot of sense!" Hehe, it's fun for you and fun for me! (Not that there is anything_ wrong with that. Some reviews that only have two words can mean more than a paragraph. Quality not quantity!)

Another massive attack of sheer love goes out to all of you who take the time to read this; whether you leave a review, favorite my story, put it on alert, or nothing at all, thank you for taking the time!

THANK YOU SLAYN! For being a beta for this story!

**Disclaimer**: Okay, you know what? I pretty much own nothing! If I mention it anywhere in this chapter, and you're brain goes, "Hmm, I don't think she has rights to that." I PROBABLY DON'T! So, if I mention a book, that's right! I don't own it. If I mention a song, that's right! I don't own that either. If I mention a character from the movie adaptation made by DreamWorks, or from the book by Cressida Cowell. _That's right, folks! _I. Don't. Own! Making no money from this or anything else; nothing!

**Rating**: I'm still leaning toward moving this story into M, someday, but for right now it will remain T.

**Warnings**: After last chapter, I'm expecting this one to be pretty tame. Nothing much at all. Actually, there might be one cuss word, so everyone cover your virgin eyes! (grin)

**Very Important Note:** Following the same vein as the last chapter, this chapter can almost be divided neatly into two parts. The first is Toothless's deep thoughts on humanity, it may seem like a lot to think about, but some deep brain storms can last only a few minutes. I want Toothless to think very deeply, to examine and to tear to pieces every thought that enters his head. This way he can come to conclusions about questions that he is discovering. Why do I feel emotions? Why do I believe Hiccup when he says this? Why do I want to stay here among humans, my natural prey? Then, in the second, it will be the interactions of the day. When I wrote this chapter I envisioned Toothless zoning out on Hiccup, while Hiccup lectures Toothless on using his injured leg. Then coming back to the conversation as his train of thought derails.

**A. Note: **Hehe, pretty catchy neh? A stands for author, but it can be read as, "just a note!" hehe… anyone? Anyone else at all find that… never mind. I'll be mentioning a few ideas here that were bounced around in the novel, "Joust" written by the very talented Mercedes Lackey. Again, though, there will be many key elements different from the novel and my fic. In "Joust" the dragons really are stupid; and I'm not being mean. Several times, they are stated to be just regularly intelligent animals, a little bit smarter than dogs; and rather like falcons. In that novel, dragons come in all sorts of colors, but are all mainly the same species; not so here (obviously, silly author writing this boring note!). So, before some leaves a review saying I'm taking anything from the novel; no I'm really not; the characters remain in their rightful fandom. Another thing different about the fic, the dragons in the novel are dragons that only sleep in warm places (I.E Desert Dragons); most definitely _not_ freezing nine-months-of -the-year Berk. Now that I have effectively put most of you to sleep, go and enjoy the chapter. (I mean unless you don't enjoy the chapter, but that would be very sad, but I hope you all do!)

Chapter Four: Only a Dragon

It has only been a few months since the attack of the two Saber-Tooth dragons and my episode of stunning idiocy -to let the stupid dragons get so close- concerning the mess. I was moved by my insistant -_pushy_- human into a lovely, open three-walled shack that was built onto the side of my human's dwelling.

For the most part, I had recovered well-enough. The thick scars that now mapped my body would never disappear; too deep and too terrible to fade away entirely. With time, I was sure, the sore -some were still scabbed up- rips in my hide would at least manage to become smooth. I must say, I'm sure that if we dragons put much stock in aesthetics -which we didn't, that was a human trait- I would be considered quite a catch. Even not on an aesthetic scale, most females would now consider my scars to be marks that declared my superiority in battle. To dragoness's this would, not doubt, be a major factor in their decision on whether or not I was "the one" this season.

There was a small problem hampering on my chances this year, not that I could really care either way to this point, but it really was such a tiny problem. In my mind, the the problem was negligible; to my human, it was as though Hel had come to pay a visit.

In the battle, I had damaged my foreleg and I had come to terms that it would never heal, but would my human listen? No, no he would not and the matter of it was because he was a human. The only animal that spurred arguments of whether or not it truly was a beast.

We _true_ beasts are all well aware of our physical limitations. There is no dreaming amongst us that we'll someday be something or do something outside of the parameters of what our species' genetic code has already mapped out for us.

A bird, no matter how much it cries for gills, will never develop gills just because it _believes_ long enough that it will. A fish will never soar one thousand feet from the ground, unless, of course, it is being carried in the talons of whatever creature has decided to make a meal of it. The wolf will never purr at being rubbed behind an ear, and the tiger will never bark at the threat of danger; this is the harsh truth for all animals. Except for _them_.

And it would figure that the one animal that has the possibility to change everything and anything, just because they decided to wake up one morning and _wanted_ to change the world as the other humans know it; that they wouldn't classify themselves as animals.

Oh -whatever God have you- _no_, it's _insulting_ to them. Insulting to the animal in question to even be considered an animal. They are firmly of one sound mind on that matter; ask anyone one of them, it'll be the only thing they ever will all agree on. Humans are not, under any circumstances, animals.

No matter, that they hunt for their prey, like us animals. No matter, that they mate and have offspring, like us animals. No matter at all, that they are born and they die, like us animals. They will simply not hear anything otherwise. They aren't animals, they are human. They have a word that is opposite for being human too, it's _inhumane_.

It is also their natural born right, apparently, to decide exactly what is inhumane and what isn't. It's inhuman to torture another human generally, but not when the other human deserves it. It's inhumane for other humans to attack a certain village, but not inhumane for the that certain village to retaliate; because, after all, its only revenge and those attacking the village were responsible.

The humans are rather loathe to admit that deep down -deep, _deep _down-, in that organ they call a heart, there is a monster as vicious and as evil as any beast in the jungle lurking among the bright blood and façade of kindness. They all desire the same things as they mature and grow from their squicky, frail baby form, but the parameters change. A toddler might want food, warmth, comfort, and toys. He is unwilling to share these pleasures with other toddlers, but is not adverse to _taking _a toy from another child. Flash forward twenty years, and instead of an innocent toy being taken, it's his neighbor's land. Instead of the comfort of his mother, he wishes for the comfort of a lover; the urges to procreate and pass on his genes overpowering his mind.

Humans are animals, indeed, but they are unlike any other animal that will ever walk the Earth. I should know, being the victim of the human that takes being different to an extreme level.

Humans are strange animals to care for their weak and sick. In my murder(1), whenever one grew sick or weak, they were left behind to fend for themselves. We couldn't be bothered to care for them, it was an extra mouth to keep fed and no contribution would come from them. This is not cruel to us, our draconic pride does not allow room for being_ sympathetic_ to those in worse situations. If you are captured, you will remain captured until your worthless existence is ended. If you are starving, it will be up to you whether or not you starve to death. From the time our eggs are laid, and we crack the shell, we dragons are already equipped to kill most of our natural predators. The only thing really left for our sire and our dam to do, is to simply teach us about what is good to eat and what isn't. Which, true to our solitary nature, is not a very long process. Before hatchlings can even adjust to being free from our repressive shells, those that contributed their genes have already flown off.

Another difference, is that us true -as the humans seem to think- animals are, for the most part, content with ourselves. Humans always seem so dissatisfied with themselves. No matter which human, it all generally runs the same: I wish I was taller. I wish I was smaller. I wish I was faster. I wish I was stronger. I wish that I was smarter, I wish, I wish, I wish.

Annoying to always be wishing; most animals accept their lots they draw in the gamble of life. You either are born strong and live long enough to reach adult hood, or you die young; there is _nothing_ else in between. None of this _wishing_ humans seem so fond of. Even some of the beasts of the jungle are growing leery of calling a human an animal. It was a _human _trait to care for one's appearance. It is a human _trait_ to care for aesthetics. We did not choose our mates on the premise of how "beautiful" they were. Beauty was measured in less of a solid criteria and one more felt through instincts. Is the mate strong enough to create hard shells and strong offspring? Then she is beautiful. Is the mate able to glide father than others, able to soar higher, or able to catch prey easier than others? Then she is beautiful.

I have mated many times in my life, each mate I have chosen has been "beautiful", but not in the sense that her scales, "gleamed more beautiful in the soft moonlight than all the others around her." Each were beautiful to me because they had been deadly killing machines, the way a dragoness should be. The pride of draconic pride everywhere! They were able to glide for miles on the single beat of strong wings. They created several eggs to each clutch and every egg hatched; they performed their rolls admirably; that was beautiful.

Then you have humans, take my own human for example. He was smitten with that little fleshy female and I could see traits in the human-woman-child that I would consider beautiful. She was fastest among her peers, fierce in battle, but in the end she was still as batshit crazy as the rest of the humans. These things humans called, "emotions" ruled humanity. Everything they did, every decision, every choice; it could all be hinged on how they were _feeling _that day. And she seemed to enjoy the -frankly- strange habits of my human; the habits that set him apart. If they were dragons, it would be strange to see them as a couple; because in all honesty, he would be considered more handsome. Therefore he would be expected to find a more beautiful mate.

Do not misunderstand; first off they are humans and even musing them as dragons was strange, irrelevant idea as a whole. The reason my human would be considered a level above was because his complete uniqueness. After all, we animals are those that pride themselves on survival of the fittest. No, he was not the strongest, nor was he the fastest, and no, he wasn't the most "handsome"; but he had something that was more attractive than any others. It was his ability to adapt. Adaptability is _the_ most coveted thing in the world of us animals. More coveted than strength, the better adapted you were would mean the longer you would live. So what if you were fierce and was not smart enough to avoid fights? Yes, you could destroy your enemies, but if you sought our fights and were too ignorant when to flee, there will be a day you will loose. Those that adapted to avoid certain fights, adapted to pick their battles; those would be the ones that lived to mate, while the stupid and stronger males died.

My human's female would be considered beautiful among draconic kind if she were a dragon, but she would be one of many beautiful females. Monogamy was an unpopular, if not foreign, idea that existed among some breeds because it was necessary for that breed. Most preferred to mate for a season and then find a new mate the next one. If my human were a dragon he would be, how they say, "very popular". He wasn't the strongest, but he was smart as a whip, and that would -strangely- be considered handsome.

Alas though, neither of them were of my dragon species. They were irrational human _animals _that insisted they were _not__animals_. In an effort to break free from this fear-provoking truth, to run away and prove they were "_so_ not" animals, they willingly fettered themselves to pre-conceived thoughts of "morals" and "laws".

Emotions, morals, and laws were not beautiful; and I had to live with the knowledge that I would no longer be considered a handsome catch among my own kind. I have been contaminated by them. Infected with their illustrious thoughts of love, of acceptance, and chaotic order.

The humans rattle their bars to the cage called life that should hold them meek and fast. They worship their "gods" in one breath, but spit in its eyes the next. Through sheer _will_ and _determination_, humans completely change everything they don't like about themselves. Limit? What limit? Oh, that boundary? I just passed it. A line in the sand? I saw no line! No trespassing upon this ground meant for God? I'll just be strolling on by…_through_ it. Tell a human no they can't, and they will spend the rest of their miserably, short lives just trying to prove, oh yes they can.

It is in the wake of this incredible determination that all animals, who already accept they are indeed animals, are easily swayed and controlled by beings that just don't seem to know when to _quit._ It is through this, that the only things humans will never truly control; is each other as a whole.

So, my surprise was rather mild compared to what it once would have been, when my human told me that I _would _-not maybe could- walk properly again someday. And I, of course, told him -not that he'll probably ever understand the language I used- no, no I won't; because this is life, you see, my lovely, thoughtful, and positively _human _human. Just because you _wish_ hard enough, doesn't mean you'll get what you want.

When I had thought my human was dead, I did pray and I did wish; but I realized after the heat of the moment that it was because I had protected him. Why wish for something when you can make it happen yourself? The only downside to that, of course, is when you really _physically_ can't.

Again, my left foreleg had been -I say permanently, _he'll_ say differently- damaged in the fight with the two Saber-Tooth Dragons. It could bear slight weight, yes. But it was utterly useless in my opinion for any manner in which to protect. It simply would not _unbend _at my elbow joint, the tendons had been nearly severed. I was not the brightest dragon by far, but even I knew the ramifications of tendons being damaged so terribly.

I didn't not regret my actions that day. I would never, could never, regret what I had sacrificed. So what if now I couldn't fly without the help of a human -my wonderful human- and now could no longer walk properly on all fours? I was able to limp myself along just fine. The only thing that bothered me was that I had lost an extra weapon for protecting my charge.

'Che, the other dragons wouldn't dare laugh or poke fun at my new "issue", as my human put it; a simple glare their way and they would cower; really no spine among the lot of them. That's because they knew their place, and their roles in life, just as I knew mine. It only just took me until a year ago to figure out that my role for this life was not to be the strongest dragon, but instead, was to protect this fragile animal -I mean human- from being killed before it was his time to die from that which nothing can escape; death.

"Toothless please, I know you can unbend it further than that! The doctor said that if you continue to stretch it, it will heal properly." The teens voice was both placatingly soft and encouragingly gentle. I ignored it and batted my tail at him -he ducked, the smart lad- and the boy let out a pleading keen that had no real translation in the human language. Hearing such a noise from my human made my ears stand straight up.

"That's right," the thin boy drew himself up, "I've been practicing that word!"

Please, dear whatever god dragons are supposed to pray to, -considering animals don't pray at all- why did anyone teach him how to plead in dragonese?

Not only did the slip of a human now know _how _to say the word, he also learned the correct way to maximize it's effect upon me. Hearing that high-pitched keen, coming from the throat of my charge, was enough to break down any surmountable wall I had managed to mortar together.

I snapped unhappily at my human lad and stretched out my left arm. Pain sizzled up from the joint straight into my brain; but it unbent a little. "Okay, hold it like that Toothless, you're doing great."

Uh huh, from where I'm sitting on the proverbial fence, it most certainly did not seem like I was doing great.

My human studied my elbow joint carefully, "It's more stretched than yesterday! Isn't this wonderful Toothless? We could have it back to normal again within a few months!"

I puffed a sigh over my little Viking that ruffled his clothes, his shaggy hair ruffled by the breeze. He would not listen to the good sense and the truth. My arm would never be the same. Even if we did manage to get it to unbend completely, it would never hold the strength it once had, nor would it ever truly cease with the pain that throbbed maliciously with ever shift I made.

But that was the lot I drew, it could be much worse; I could be dead. It could be even worse, my human could be dead. The point being naturally, was that _I_ was okay with my arm the way it was now. Don't misunderstand, I would be glad that if wishing really worked, for it to return to the way it was before, but it won't. So, case in point, there really was no reason to agonize over it. What was done was done, and it couldn't be undone. I acknowledged this, I understood this, I moved on. Now, try telling _that_ to my human, whom seemed completely unable to grasp such a thought. The idea of not being able to do something, never crossed his mind.

Ah, to be a human; they were truly the luckiest of us all. Able to deny what they wished to deny, and accept whatever construed logic they chose. Must be nice.

My human finally decided that I had been tormented enough and patted my shoulder softly; his hands reaching up to scratch behind my ears; I purred, please with the soothing gesture, "Why won't you truly try Toothless? Why won't you believe when I say that'll it will get better?"

I wrapped a tail up around us both, I couldn't answer very well anyway; he had only begun to grasp the simplest words in dragonese. I wanted to tell him that it was because it just _would not_ happen. I couldn't crush my human's spirit, he was already wallowing in misery that I had been injured so severely to protect him. I was not ashamed, and I was not upset; I would do it again in an instant.

Our moment was not so much encroached upon, as it was completely reduced to shambles. Three Terrible Terrors stormed into my lean-to; all of them chirring and chittering to one another. I snarled out of instinct, _**my **_territory, _**my**_ human! The thought calmed, as the cursed infection called understanding crept into my predator's brain. They were smaller than me, they did not deserve such violence; it would be -ugh why, why would _I_ think such a thought?- unfair.

I shuddered, my human mistaking it for being upset by the noise and the boy leveled a "I'm-very-disappointed-in-you" look at the three scale mites. They all stopped their noisy rough-housing. Identical looks of being shame-faced appeared; all letting out keens of apologies.

I knew as well as my Hiccup knew, the human wouldn't be able to resist such a cute scene. Sure enough he was chuckling that soft, comforting laugh. "Now, what is the urgent message?"

I felt my mind sharpen at the words, as the pathetic excuses for dragons all began to speak Dragonese with the clarity of mud. Even I managed to only catch a few snippets, _"Large human talks kind little dragon-boy"_

"_Large leader need speaksss to urgent."_

"_Human sends us, we come!"_

I blinked slowly and my human turned to me for translation. I gazed at him, trying to decide how to create a sentence that the little Viking would understand with his limited vocabulary. _"Sire requests you."_

My little waif of a human's eyes lit up, "Oh, dad wants to see me? I wonder what it's about… I know he mentioned that a hunting party had come across a nest of dragon eggs. He said that the eggs were abandoned?"

The last statement was really a question if one knew how Hiccup's rambling sentences ran. I knew he was asking me if it was possible, would a mother dragon really be so -inhumane- as to forget her eggs?

My full response would have been along the lines of, yes she would if it were profitable to her. Instead I said, _"It happens."_

My human seemed disturbed, I could see the tension as it settled across his shoulders, but I could do nothing to ease it. After all, I was a member of the dragon species. I could think of many instances where a dragoness would abandon her nest if she ran out of food, or if a human village was too close to discovering her nest. They all knew it was better to leave the nest behind and flee, better to live now and reproduce again later.

I whuffled at the red-haired boy, who gave me a small smile. "Well, come on then buddy. Let's see what's going on?" His spidery hands gestured to me to follow him.

The walk was mostly uneventful. Between keeping an eye on my usually unsteady charge, three annoyingly little, yapping dragons who _insisted_ that I listen to every bit of gossip they had heard in five months, and keeping my pained snarl to myself; I was relieved that my human spotted his father in the center square.

Square was a bit of a stretch; it was a rather unimpressive geometrical shape that _really_ did want to be a square, but its creators were much too busy -lazy- to every really fix it into one. Despite that, whenever something big was to be had, anything important at all that could not be fit into the Grand Hall; it was discussed here.

Rather unexpectedly, I found my eyes alighting on several eggs all stretched out in ragged line, and my human's sire pacing back and forth in front of them.

My excellent ears pricked when I heard my human gasp, "Dad… what are these doing here? Are these the… uh…" The lanky teen trailed off.

"Yes, these are eggs our villagers found when we were exploring that little island four miles east of here. Found a cave, went in, saw these. Decided that you might know what to do with them."

I felt my own mirth bubble up at the stunned and "are-you-kidding-please-say-yes" look that overcame my human's face. "Dad?"

"Yes son?"

"What on Odin's Earth makes you think I, er, know anything about what to do with dragon eggs?"

My human's sire shifted his gaze to me and I gave the hulking male his customary greeting snarl. "Well, you can always ask your scaled nursemaid…"

I felt the growl bubble out, a low -and very terrifying, so I'm told- sound. My human patted my side, his dancing fingers found that wonderful spot under my chin and I collapsed upon myself; tiny Terrors squeaking in mad fear as I nearly squished them. There was a brief stab of pain from my unprepared left foreleg, but it was drowned by the very pleasant scratching.

I didn't want to ignore the fact that my -completely justified!- reaction had been brushed off like a speck of dirt, but my human's soft smile as he looked at me twitching in semi-bliss caused me to accept that the teen just wanted to avoid blood-shed. So, for the sake of those quietly pleading eyes, I just snorted and curled up as though I'd meant to crash on the ground all along.

"_What I do?"_ My human tried in his heavily accented -again, laughably cute- speech.

I forced my half-mast eyes to open wider and with a groan, pushed myself to my feet. At the pointed glare from my human's green eyes, I unbent my left foreleg and limped over to the seven eggs.

They were off-white, mottled with flecks of blue and specks of gray; about the size of a medium-sized dog. The scent on the first three eggs were the same, but the next two were different, and the final two had, yet another, different scent. That was not unusual. With the fall of the Queen, it was not much of a stretch to think that the previously loner dragonesses would begin to group together. Yes it had been a over a year now since her fall, but it would take a while to return to normal. Dragonesses would group together now, if only for the sheer comfort of sleeping near one another while trying to re-adjust back to their previous singular existence.

The thing is, for the most part, we dragons prefer to be by ourselves. You could possibly find a permanently mated pair, ones that had decided it was profitable to remain mated to the other indefinitely, but usually dragons tend to bicker too much.

It made Berk an exclusive, "what in the Hel is going on here?" place considering no major fights had broken out among the _residents_;white Saber-Tooth dragons do not count. I continued to study the eggs, I saw minute differences between the shells of each group. I finally took in a deep sniff, my brain working out what base scent belonged to what breed. All dragon breeds had a base scent, a calling mark if you will. It was possible to have an overlying scent, a personal mark, but no dragon was without a base scent.

The first three eggs, from what I could gather, were eggs from what the humans called a Devilish Dervish. A dragon the was very similar to a Monstrous Nightmare, except it was of a more "stable" nature; with foggy blue striations down its spine which was lined in vicious spikes.

The next two eggs, would undoubtedly make my human's sire keen in sorrow as they were from a Windwalker. The biggest push-over of dragon species known to Dragonkind. I had only met a few, and was unsurprised that they could co-exist with a Dervish. Windwalker's were incredibly gentle and were so pacifistic that they only ate bugs. I had seen one once step on a little squirrel that had ran stupidly beneath its feet. In a typical case scenario, the two ton dragon had broken the little mammal's spine before it had drawn back its foot in horror. The soft blue dragon had leaned over and breathed its healing gas over the tiny creature and the large creature nearly fell over in relief when the squirrel completely recovered. My human, on the other hand, would be over the moon at the idea of a dragon that had the ability to heal wounds; the Vikings were always getting injured in _some_ way.

The last two eggs took me a while to figure out, but eventually I determined that they were from a typical Monstrous Nightmare's. I, again, was not too terribly surprised. Before the destruction of the cess-pot that was the Queen's Island; dragons from all breeds, who under normal circumstances would have never lived in such conditions outside of their natural habitat, had come together under her control.

A few were bound to have gone into heat and wound up with eggs. The death of the Queen, coupled with the destruction of the island, would have caused panic among many dragons that would have been waking up from their long sleepy dream of obeying the gigantic Queen to flee in panic. A few grounded females would, surely, have banded together, upset and confused as to why they were so conditioned to the presence of other dragons at a time when they were so vulnerable. These three females might have stayed long enough to actually hatch the eggs themselves, but with the scent of Vikings and still unsure with the truce called between the two species', would have caused them to just to grow fed up and leave.

I limped -majestically, of course- back over to my waiting human. He looked up expectantly, but before I began to attempt to explain, I leveled a glare to the staring Terrors. _"You three, you are without masters, yes?"_

The largest, one that was green with wings that were more orange than red, stepped forward, _"We have lot masters, why speak us?"_

I couldn't help but to be amused by this Terror, he had much better Dragonese than the others I had spoken to.

"_Eggs, neh?" _I flicked my half fake- half real tail toward the faintly glimmering eggs, probably all the tough metals that had been consumed while pregnant in an attempt to harden the shells; dragoness preferred to eat as much as possible in metal to attempt to stop too much stored calcium from dissipating in their bones.

The Terror gazed over at the eggs, _"Eggs." _He agreed.

_"They warmth, need. You fire?" _I watched as the small thing worked out the request. I was really beginning to think larger, meant smarter, but then I remembered that the Queen had been completely insane.

The tiny dragon drew himself up, _"Rabble fire. Important?"_

I felt amusement born from my superiority as I nodded in agreement, _"Very important. Others help, you most important."_

The small Terror threw out his chest and stalked over to the others. They descended into a blindingly quick discussion filled with scraps of Dragonese, hisses, squeaks, and a few high-pitched growls. The smaller two bowed their heads and the trio moved over to the eggs.

My human startled, even stepping forward at their sudden movement, but I decided to spare him the worry, _"No worry, they help."_

"_How help?"_

"_They will breathe flames to keep the egg warm,"_ I said, tired of speaking in such simple dragonet terms as it was causing a headache, but that was all my human could understand for now.

"_I'm sorry?"_

"_Fire eggs, warmth."_

My human gleaned understanding and walked over to my side. The thin body leaned against my side for support; which I gave willingly. _"Hard explain them."_

My teen's eyes grew confused, _"Them?"_

"_Eggs. Hard explain."_

His brows furrowed, _"Explain what?"_

"_Hard explain…type? Red, blue, yellow."_ I listed off, trying to give him an idea of the different colors of breeds.

"Breed you mean?"

"_Breed." _I repeated in Dragonese, which my human muttered over and over to get used to such a guttural sound. Human vocal cords, with a lot of practice, could manipulate the sound enough to reproduce the right growls and low moans for Dragonese, well enough at the very least to be understood.

"_What Bre-eed?" _He drew out the growl a little long, but I didn't correct him; it was much too cute.

"_Manual."_

My Viking teen motioned to his father, who had been watching avidly, the said hulking male seemed uncertain in his walk as he stepped over to his son. I'm sure it must have been very disconcerting for him, considering his son was talking to -obviously- a beast.

"Toothless says he can identify the breeds, I'm going to get a manual. The Terrors are going to flame the eggs to keep them warm. Maybe we should set up shifts? The eggs might die…"

The larger red-haired male snorted, "How is that a bad thing?"

Oh, even _I_ shuddered at the look my human gave his father, "Dad, after everything they've helped with around the ships and the village?"

"All I know," The large leader said, not about to be told off by his slip of a son, "Is that they would not do the same for a few _human_ children."

"_He true." _I growled in the simple language.

We dragon's had two languages and the second was just a watered down version of what would eventually become the first. The second language was what dragonets -who had few memories of their mother's speaking it to them while in-shell- used to speak to hatching-mates and other dragonets they might meet on their journeys. As the dragonets grew older, eventually they would catch enough snippet's from older dragons to speak cohesively enough to actually throw together a sentence in comprehensible Dragonese. Currently, Hiccup was speaking in very simple dragonet Dragonese. Not that it bothered me, the fact I could talk _directly_ -sort of- to my human was amazing. Though, we may never have the long conversations I longed for, it was enough -for now- to hear just a few words of my language come from his throat.

I watched as my human's face fell before steeling, _"We_ are not them! I will make sure they hatch and they are treated well!"

I was both pleased and amused by my human's "we aren't animals" declaration and watched as the teen stalked off toward the Grand Hall, presumably to find one of the manuals that were always lying around.

Both my human's sire and I regarded one another coolly, but civilly. "So, you think you can identify them eggs?"

'Them eggs' were gestured to with large, meaty hands. I gazed unblinkingly into those icy blue eyes before bobbing my head up and down. Awkward silence fell over us, the only noise coming from the Terrors that were taking turns flaming the eggs. My human must have been running all the way to the Grand Hall and back, because when he returned with the tome, he was out-of-breath.

Opening the book carefully and settling at my feet so that I could peer over his narrow shoulder, I watched him slowly turn each page. As the page opened to the Dervish, _"Firs three that."_

"Toothless says that the first three eggs are Devilish Dervish's."

"Oh, that will be very useful. Need to find some likely Vikings to be able to take them on…"

My Hiccup rolled his eyes at his father and smiled up at me, "Okay buddy, ready?"

I watched him flip through many more pages before it landed on Windwalkers. _"Next two that…" _"Oh…"

"What, what son?"

"Er…well…"

"Spit it out, lad!"

"The next two are Windwalkers…"

"… _Windwalkers? _Windwalkers?!"

"Well, actually," The red-haired boy began. "We could really use a few. Imagine not having to worry about deadly wounds anymore?"

"Lad, we Vikings want to die from deadly wounds on the battlefield, how else will we ever reach Valhalla?"

"What about no more death from disease?" The teen supplied, and was not disappointed at the gleeful look that spread across the broad face.

"On second thought, two Windwalkers about would be very helpful…"

The teen did not choose to reply to the rambles and went back to flipping though pages. I shook my head, _"Last two Nightmares."_

"_Common Nightmares?"_

"_Nightmares."_

"Toothless says the last two eggs are normal Monstrous Nightmares."

It seemed though, that Nightmares had a special place in the burly man's heart. He just nodded his head, "Nothing wrong with a few more Nightmares around." and the large man eyed the little Terrors, "I'll get a shift going to make sure the eggs stay warm. Does that overgrown lizard of yours know when they will hatch?"

My teen turned to look at me, _"Few sun cycles. Maybe little longer."_

"He says it might be a few days, or maybe a little longer."

The fiery red-head thought about it, "I've never seen a dragonet hatch before, is there something we should look out for?"

Again, both sets of eyes were turned on me and I sighed, _"They hungry hatch. Other dragons speak them; talk through shell. Dragonets hear; it help."_

My teen began working out the broken and simplistic dragonese. "Toothless says that they will be hungry when they hatch, so we should have food ready. And that the other dragons should… speak, I think, to the dragonets. Supposedly, they can hear through the shells."

I nodded my head when the teen looked in my direction; exactly right. Perhaps I should have been more upset, but really I wasn't. After all, wouldn't it be more _inhumane_ to allow the dragonets to die so close to their hatching, than to let them hatch into a world where dragons lived alongside humans peacefully?

Some dragons might throw a fit over the idea that from birth, all these dragons would know would be humans. They would not go through their wandering years, struggling to survive or learn how to depend on themselves. Instead their food would be brought to them, or them to the food. They would not have to endure any drastic weather, able to curl up warm in a lean-to. They would not have to defend themselves against larger predators until they, themselves, were the larger animal. All would be taken care of by humans; all love, attention, and pleasure would come from humans. Was it better, or was it worse?

I couldn't even hope to answer it; not as my human strode forward to stand at my side. I was so engrossed by his hand upon my side, that I automatically began to walk on my injured leg. It wouldn't be until later, when I made it back to my warm hut next to the house, that my human would throw his arms around my neck and chanting, "I told you could do it," over and over again. It would be then that I would fully realize, that I had just made it all the way back to the hut without a drastic limp.

I wasn't sure if it was all the practice and stretching I'd been doing with it; or if it was the unshakable belief my human had, that I would someday "miraculously heal". It didn't matter really, some things I couldn't figure out about the humans; as chaotic and crazy as they were.

They would not consider themselves animals and even I was now beginning to experience doubt that they were "_just another animal."_ It all went hand-in-hand though. Humans denied nearly everything about themselves, it shouldn't be so shocking. I, at least, could accept myself. I was a dragon… or at least I used to be… now I'm something that is like a dragon, but has a conscience. Damn meddling human teenager; oh well… if he kept scratching like that at my ears, I would gladly be anything he asked.

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(1) Murder: this is what a group of crows is called. I thought it would fit the whole bad-assedness that are Night Furies, so any group of Night Furies is this! (in my story anyway…)

This is just a quick little reminder as to why Stoick would warm up to the idea of no more deaths from illness. To Vikings, to die from illness or in your sleep was the worst thing possible. They'd go to Hel's realm, a palce that no warrior wants to go. Windwalkers can, literally, bring mammals back from the dead (because if it accidently eats one, it will spit it up and revive it) so I believe it could cure most illnesses. Therefore, another year of raids and no going to see Hel!

Hmm, I hope you all think that this was, at least, as good as the last three chapters!

Done! Maybe next chapter (If there is one, it won't be for a while) they will hatch! I hope you all like this chapter! Read and Review, or just read, or just… review?

I'm going to attempt to post some of my own fan art for this story on my deviantart (i'll post a link when I get it working!), but I still would love for people who have a talent in art (or none at all, that's cool too) to maybe draw a few sketchs? Please?! I'll give internet Toothless-shaped cookies!


	5. We Will Only Belong to the Sky

Not much to say other then thank you for being so patient. This chapter will be interesting to say the least. So, I hope you all follow along and understand the vision I had for this chapter, I know it will be a little strange.

**Disclaimer: DO NOT OWN, DO VERY MUCH WANT!**

**Rating**: Finally moving this up to mature!

**Warning: **A mating between two dragons occurs in this chapter. I figured it would be a revelation to maybe see all the angles to Toothless, who is still a dragon no matter how much closer he gets to understanding humans. (if he ever will)

A. Note: So, as stated above, Toothless will be attending the mating this year. It's been a while since my last posting, but in the last chapter, his thoughts were on what his chances might be to mate again. He is not a hatchling, therefore I believe that this is all part of life. It would be a great chance to see more of the Human/Dragon relationship, as well as more Dragon/Dragon interactions… at least that's what I am aiming for anyway.

**WARNING: UNBETA'ED. READ AT OWN PERIL! (woe) also, please ignore the periods in between the spacing page breaks,F F . N doesn't seem to like empty space. (more woe)**

Inspirational music: I Am, sung by Hillary Duff, lyrics at the bottom of the chapter.

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Chapter Five: We Belong to the Sky

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Perhaps it was just me, but on my life, I could just never get into all these "myth" things my rider was always talking about. I suppose I could understand from a certain viewpoint, listening to the incessant babble of humans about long since -supposedly- dead humans transformed into things, or killed non-existent things, or these things really happened but no longer do so.

It was no right of mine to direct my human on how he should think, though I would if he could understand most of what I'd say. I think the reason I disliked these "myths" was because they were just that…

Just stories, never to really happen, or to ever really exist. A human would never be able to sprout wings, much to my eternal disappointment, so why waste my time listening…and dreaming?

Dreaming, hmm, I remember when I was just a dragonet that I dreamed. I dream now, of course, but they are dreams that have become bogged down by life itself. When I was a hatchling, I dreamed that I would be as big as a mountain, but swift like the wind. That I was everything and my breath could sweep down forests. I would dream that nothing would ever stand against me, that I was powerful, a master of the air.

And while I _am_ a master of the air, my dreams were now more like feelings that flickered through my mind, the nicer ones were my best memories. As I grow older, I notice my dreams coming less and less, as though they were being taken somewhere, someplace that they could not reach me again.

I didn't need them, dreams _were_ for dragonets after all. At that age, dreams were all they had, the only thing that pushed them through their hard and metallic shells; dreams of seeing the sun and the all-encompassing sky.

Even now, as I curled about these early eggs, bound to hatch today, I watch that same sky.

I would snarl and strike down whoever was to call me _soft_ -unless your human designation is Hiccup- as I curled up around the lot of them, watching the current set of Terrible Terrors huff and puff away.

I was not soft for telling the dragonets of the world that awaited them. I was _not_ kind for telling them of the wonderful feeling of sleeping in the sun, or soaring through misty clouds. And I was certainly _not_ motherly for telling them that the best thing outside of those safe shells awaited them; the delightfully confusing humans.

Even now, I'm still unsure over who was more anxious. The young Vikings, newly "graduated" -strange idea- students of Dragon Class. A supposed class that everyone now took to help care and love their own dragons, or the little writhing things inside their shells, cramped in the boundaries of their prison.

Birth was the beginning to the rest of their lives. It was celebrated here in the village. Humans seemed happy to find _any_ reason to celebrate, with huge bonfires, too much "ale", and jaunty -ugh- _singing. _To this day, I still see very little to celebrate about birth.

It would be different, this time for these dragonets. With a village full of eager people, and even more eager dragons, all of them waiting for the first egg-tooth to break shell. Everything they wanted, they would have, no fighting amongst hatch-mates, no being picked off one by one by hungrier and older predators. What an ideal beginning… I suppose.

Had this been my clutch, I would have told them in the shell, _"stay inside, where it is safe and you feel no pain."_ For without these humans, the dragonet's lives would be so very different.

Most dragonesses only stayed for a day at the most near the new hatchlings before flitting away; this was the end of their maternal instincts. How strange it was to fight to protect un-hatched eggs, but when they are alive and breathing to just leave them? It was not any fault of a dragoness to leave, it was nature and this was _life_.

I would have told them, welcome to the beginning of your struggle called life. Some of you will make it to see your first flight, others will perish before even leaving the nest, but this is life. Some of you will be strong, some will be weak, and some of you will just be average.

Break your shells, little ones, and gaze upon this world. It is a wonderfully cruel being, one that will bless you with sun, but ravage you with its harsh reality. For the day you hatch will mark the beginning of your first struggle, the struggle to find the energy to free yourself from your eggshells. Then it will be a struggle to find cover, a struggle to find food, a struggle to just survive. You will be battling the rest of your life, even when you think you are at peace, but don't hate what you're being born into; this is life.

I would not sweet-coat it. Life had its perks, but when I was wild, I saw many hatchlings never even make it from their shells. Being honest with dragonets back then had saved many of their lives. Talking to them in their shells, telling them how to dart their way for shelter, how to snap necks, and make every meal count.

But here…

Here they would be safe, the humans would take care of that. Here they would have no predators, no struggles, no battles to win. I even felt a bit of bitterness well up inside me, my life was not an easy one, why had it taken me so long to find peace?

And I had found peace here. I found peace every time I looked down at my human sleeping quietly at my side. Peace when I spread my wings and soared through salty air up into a sky more blue than could ever be described, that slight weight was a comfort for me.

Whenever I was near a clutch, usually my own as no dragoness would allow a male who was not the sire close, I always told the dragonets resting inside the eggs the truth. Just as I would do so here.

The truth for these lucky and special eggs, was that they would be loved. They would be coddled, and hugged, and kissed everyday. They would be fed until they were bursting, scales would be cleaned until the gleamed like gems, and the dragonets would never know a day of suffering until they touched the sky.

It isn't flying that caused the suffering, it was the knowledge that they would never really grasp the true nature of life as their wild counterparts.

I think this even as I look up into the emptiness that filled me with that strange emotion called hope. And I would only admit this to myself… and maybe to my russet-haired boy if he begged me nicely, I liked it. I liked the feeling of being full of something more than just meat. I was keen on the idea of no longer feeling that cold lack of emotion eating away at what I was fairly sure was a _soul_. And only knowing about emotion now, was the only way I could look back into my past and _see_ that something had been missing.

I'm not quite sure as to where I acquired such a thing like a soul, it wasn't there the last time I searched for it; which begged the question of whether or not I could _gain_ one.

I had my suspicions as to where my "soul" came from, as I was sure it wasn't an illness, and it was lanky with green irises. Could two beings share a soul? How had I become a creature so full with something that wasn't pride, anger, or hunger? When had this snuck up on me?

Speaking of sneaking up… I raised my head and pretended not to notice my gangly human trying to walk quietly behind me. Even without the creak of metal he'd gained, I would have known he was there. Silly human, coming from behind me where the wind was blowing so easily to my nostrils.

I humored him though, he got such strange pleasure over the idea of creeping up on, "A noble Night Fury."

Even when he'd leapt, making an high-pitched trill -his version of a dragon battle cry- I remained perfectly still, feigning sleep. And then I jolted, pretending I'd been awakened suddenly, hissing and spitting like a true awakened dragon would.

Ah, and the sound that made the whole debacle worth it, the sound that was music to my long ears and soothed my draconic pride of being snuck up on like a worthless hatchling; his laughter.

I gave him a mock glare, fixing him with eyes that were only half-heartedly attempting to be upset, but his laugh was even more infectious then I originally thought because I gave that toothless smile that delighted him.

And like a good partner he reached out and scratched beneath my chin, that one place that made me coo and sigh into his hand. This was my peace, and I guess all those years of fighting were worth it, if this was my prize for beating the game called life.

"_Humans ready hatch?" _I asked him in the simple language.

"_Food brought, hatchlings decide." _I nodded my head, before lowering it to the eggs.

"_Hurry little dragonets, hatch and see this world."_ I encouraged them, for it seemed they would never hatch if I just left them alone.

One of the dervish eggs rocked violently at my gentle command, and I backed away from the group.

I spied the group of suddenly very meek kids, barely reached teen years, grouping together. I spat angrily at them.

"_HUMANS, COME FACE THEM!"_

Two backed away further, the rest seemed to stay in the same spot. I rolled my eyes to the blessed sky, digging deep for the patience that I knew lingered inside me. Before I could try again, my human moved forward, "Come on now, you've all been running about the place since we told you that you were chosen to be riders."

The bravest of them, I couldn't describe him as most human all looked alike to me, started forward and headed toward the first egg in the group; one of the Dervish. He was on his knees as the egg rocked.

There was almost a hushed silence as the egg tooth poked through the largest crack, wiggling back and forth to create a bigger hole; fighting as it was meant to. The human looked rather useless as his eyes flickered between the egg and my rider, as though my human could tell him what to expect.

I don't know what the humans were expecting, but when the dragonet blasted its way through its shell, I heard the collective gasp and realized dully that the entire village was huddled close.

A hatchling isn't a pretty being, the scales are still wet and not at a luster, the wings are wrinkled and slick, an yolk-sac still attached clung as the creature squalled in victory and hunger. It attempted to stretch its wings, overwhelmed at the sight of the world, its orange-red body swaying with effort.

To me, it was an average hatchling and an average hatching, but when I looked closely to focus on that little human boy, it was like the sun had journeyed down just to touch his face.

A wide grin threatened to split his face as he reached out to touch the hatchling, I guess he must have though it would be magical moment, perhaps a joining of like minds, but I snickered inwardly when the dragonet tried to take a bite of that outstretched hand.

Hatchlings had no need to imprint on the first being they see, nor did they have any bond when they first break shell. There was nothing to hold this hatchling to this boy, the dragonet was freshly born and would be gone if the boy didn't brandish some of that meat to it.

I felt my human pat my shoulder and use a foot to nudge a bowl full of said meat to the boy, who was trying to keep away from the staggering dragonet and its mouth. It took a moment, and I'm sure the boy nearly lost a few of his fingers, but when the dragonet realized that this strange creature was feeding it, it settled down and opened its mouth.

The next few hatchings went like this. After the first boy, the other humans seemed to get the idea and grabbed bowls of meet, except for those that were getting the Windwalkers, all lining up and trying to establish _something_ with the dragonets.

The last egg, a Nightmare, had rocked earlier, but now with only a few cracks in the shell, it was silent. I looked at the child that was near tears over the idea that its dragon wouldn't hatch. But this was life, and even though I could see the child itching to help the dragon out, she wouldn't reach for it.

I snorted and moved from my human's side. Stalking over the motion-less egg, I crouched near it and cocked an ear. I hear the tiny heartbeat and was filled with confusion as I sat on my haunches. _"Why no come?"_

I hadn't expected an answer, hatchlings rarely answered for the first few hours, but an answer still came, _"Scared."_

Hmm, I sniffed over the egg, nudging it with my snout, _"You die if stay inside."_

"_Scared!" _came the squall.

"_Try."_

"_Why?"_

Why indeed, I couldn't answer it. For me, the reason to get up in the morning was standing right beside me, and I certainly couldn't tell this dragonet what it should attempt to live for.

Hiccup walked over to me, and I gazed down at his face. I already had memorized his features, and even though other humans looked alike to me, his face was vivid like a dawn and there was no one else's like his; just like there was no identical sunrise.

My human kneeled down to where I was crouched and peered at the hole, _"Try."_ he repeated my earlier appeal.

"_No! Why try? Tired."_

I shared a glance with my rider, before he focused on the egg again, _"You will like. Tasty food, warm sun, a rider."_

"_What rider?"_

"_Your partner."_

"_What partner?"_

My human gave a small smiled as he ran a hand over my scales, _"Guess you have come out. See yourself."_

There was no answer, the tribe had leaned in and waited with bated breath. All at once, the shell shattered into many pieces, flying in every direction. The hatchling blinked round and surprised eyes at the sight of sun. It shook itself, slimy and wet with mucous and egg-slime, _"What partner!" _it demanded.

I flicked a tail toward the girl-human, who had dripping, bloody meat held out toward it. The hatchling looked at me, then my human, before turning away and accepting the meat.

I felt that same hand continue to pet my side and I could just tell _my_ partner was smiling widely. I rolled my eyes again and sighed, there would be a celebration no doubt, the first of many if my instincts were right…

They usually were.

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-A Week Later-

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The wind whistled as I flew along, the world stretched out in front of me. Hand that were growing larger every day, were splayed across my shoulders, stroking in absent thought.

I was surprised he'd agreed, but at the same time I wasn't. There was a risk that he would have said no, after all I couldn't fly all the way to the breeding grounds on my own. I should have known though, my human was filled with an understanding. That though I was his dragon, I was also born wild.

The eggs that had hatched had been laid by dragonesses that had come into season very early, as I only began to feel the call to mate a few days ago. I could have suppressed it, the urge. It would have been incredibly unpleasant, I would have probably gotten into more than a few fights from sheer agitation and the inability to burn off my passion. Maybe...have killed a few minor dragons, but hey, who would miss them?

The other dragons had it easier than I. They all had their respective breeds nearby and didn't feel the urge to return to a specific place to breed. My sharp human had noticed my anxiety, and despite me telling him nothing, he found out about the mating season. Probably from loose-jawed Terrors that didn't know when to shut their mouths, but I wouldn't put it past the other dragons to beg for him to take me away; I suppose I could get pretty waspish.

The entire conversation had been strange. In the past, I wouldn't have felt the slightest awkward about it. I was a dragon. I live, I hunt, I eat all meat, and I breed to carry on my legacy. My own pedigree was not an accident, generations of the top Night Furies had bred to produce me, all to make sure my breed continued to rule the skies.

I shouldn't have felt a twinge of embarrassment over it, but living with humans had corrupted my mind, for now awareness that humans were not bound by such instincts. It was another reminder of why I hated those "myths" I would never be human, no matter how keenly I felt their emotions. Humans would never become dragons, they would never be able to see through my eyes and experience the hardships of having instincts that called louder than morality and emotion.

But when he'd come to me, and asked _me_, if I was okay with him going with me to the breeding grounds, I wasn't going to lie to myself and say I wasn't shocked. Another part of human compassion, was there ever an end to the surprises of this multi-faceted being called a human?

"_We are close?"_ I heard the snippet of speech before the wind whipped it away.

"_Very. Stay close."_

I knew without even looking he would nod, but I looked anyway, just to see his expression of joy as the wind invigorated him. He was the epitome of a human being, so strange and always a contradiction to himself, but so… amazing.

As a dragon, I was always going to be a dragon. I was a being moulded from years of generations of past dragons. My instincts would never be ignored, I would never be what he was, I guess that was why I felt he completed me.

When I was dull, he was bright. When I was hopeless, he had that small thing called faith to help me back up. I'm glad humans were such an enigma, so different, and just so crazy; he could feel things that I could only wish to feel.

As I heard him cheer when I dipped, I knew he wished he could be a little more like me. With wings and able to climb up toward the heavens just like I could. If we could only be one being, I think we would find an answer to a question that was always there, but never spoken aloud.

My heart was light as I continued to wing over the ocean, the island of my brith in sight.

"_Toothless?"_

"_Yes?"_

"_Thank you."_

I was startled, _"For what?"_

"_For giving me chance, all the time ago. For not eat me."_

I nearly gave that huffing sound that Hiccup told me was a laugh.

"_Th__en I thank you."_

"_Huh?"_

"_Thank you. For not kill me."_

I could practically feel the smile that he beamed, it warmed that little part of me that I was calling my soul.

I winged down, a neat spiral as I descended to the Earth. I closed my wings as my claws touched, and settled myself.

I could already scent the scant number of Night Furies already there. We were a rare breed and rarely rose to mate more than once every few years. The least maternal and the most ferocious. I was by no means old, but I had seen more action then most of my brethren.

I raised my head proudly and I stalked forward toward where I knew the others would be.

Usually, there was very little talking during the rituals, which were useless and petty to me. Most was just posturing and a complete waste of time, rarely did anything ever come to blows.

I knew my human would raise controversy. There would be an uproar over whether I was still desirable, after all, I could not fly without my human counterpart… wouldn't fly without my human counterpart.

When I did reach them, nearly a hundred pairs of glittering green eyes fixed upon me. Taking in my battle scars, my slight limp, before finally fixing upon my human.

There were indignant squawks and roars, my own was included when the others started forward. My eyes locked on to those of the dragon in front of me, a midnight blue than a true black like myself.

"_A human! What business does a human have in our affairs?"_

"_This is MY human, he will stay with me wherever I go. He has saved my life."_

"_What does that have to do with our mating rituals?" _Another dark blue Night Fury spat from my right.

I snapped out my impressive wings and could hardly contain my superior gaze as I heard a few dragonesses murmur. My wings were large, I knew that, my body was strong and healthy. I was a good catch and I knew it, but then I curled my tail up, and the gasp started.

"_Your tail…"_

"_Is FINE."_ I insisted.

"_Can you fly still?"_

I made a note not to breed with _that_ particular dragoness, of course I could still fly, how else would I be here on this island?

"_I can fly even more swiftly than in my youth."_

A large female came forward, a deep black. I raised my head as I eyed her, she was a good size and her scales were in good health. Obviously she was able to hunt well enough to keep in good physique.

"_You may prove such, but that has not answered why the human is with you."_

"_I can not fly without this human." _I was in no mood to give more as to why, and they were just going to have to accept such. They may be stubborn, but I was even more so, and I would not give on this. My rider was as much a part of me, as I was a part of him. Even if I could still fly by myself, I would have wanted him to journey with me, to be here close enough for me to keep him safe.

Though it was incredibly hard to say, it was the truth, I saw the shock in their eyes. As they tried to decide if I would even still be considered a dragon.

I dug my claws into the dirt and murmured a quiet, _"Hang on tightly."_

I could smell my human's terror, but he bravely gripped down onto the leather of my saddle and sucked in a deep breath. There was only one way to get to my stubborn kind and that was through a fight.

I leapt up, skimming past the heads of the debating dragons. I wheeled neatly around. Hiccup, even through his uncertainty, continued to make sure the position of his foot was correct.

I called down a challenge that was more an unintelligible roar than any sort of words, and an answer came as many dragons leapt up to follow me. They were males, out to either beat me into submission to leave, or just to beat me. This would be our display flight, a battle of sorts without any blood shed, a chance for females to make their choice.

A young black male struck out toward me, but I had experience where he had none; I waited until my rider could have reached out and touched the other before I went into a roll. I dropped below him, we were chest to chest and I reached out a clawed paw to tap against his chest. To remind him that I could have killed him.

I arched up past him, as fast as a blur to touch the sky. The other males behind me raced up after, to prove that they were faster or could fly higher. A few kept up with me as I executed a loop that made my passenger gasp in a combination of horror and sheer joy.

It urged me on as I dropped into a nose dive. His screams of terrified excitement filled the air, and I pulled up seconds before we hit the ground to shoot over females that were tilting their heads to watch us.

A moment later and the air was filled with the sound of wings, the females leaping up to join the males in the air. There was no joining yet, we all just observed one another, multiple wings beating out of synch.

I wasn't sure which dragoness I wanted this year. As usual, there were a few I could eliminate quickly, but it wasn't until I felt the softness of my human's hand tap my right side that I saw the best choice.

I looked up at Hiccup, who grinned down at me. He nudged me with his knees, "Let's go buddy, time to make babies!"

I wasn't going to correct him, and merely raised an eyebrow as I raced forward. I streaked past her, butting her with my nose. A hard enough nudge to attract her attention before I did a perfect backstroke. I hovered in front of her, my claws up, my head tilted, and my wings spread out to show their span. My human was hidden from her view, which was exactly how I wanted it, because it was _my_ human.

She seemed to think about it while I looked her over once more. She had a slender body, but forearms were well-proportioned. Her wingspan was impressive enough, and her teeth were straight and sharp. It was a good choice, and she was to dragon standards, a beautiful female.

The dragoness made up her mind and winged toward me, skimming past my side as an invitation to catch her.

Of course, they could never just make it easy. I think I scared my poor human out of ten years of his life, by copying her movements. I would have felt bad for it too, if it weren't for those strange occasions when I felt those arms wrap around my neck, and hear his words of, "Go! Go! Go!"

My heart was glowing, the idea that he was so accepting even while I was forcing him to stay on my back for a mating flight. It was surely very awkward for him. I snapped out of my feelings of fuzzy warmth to see my future mate sky rocket up, her tail whipping flirtatiously at my snout.

I tilted my wings and followed her up, the three of us winding higher and higher up. We circled one another, and for a long moment, I basked in sun and sky. Then I shot toward her, my wings fouling hers, and our tails wrapping around one another.

We hung their in the air, my mouth biting down on the back of her neck as our bodies began to fall and join. Gravity pulled us back to the ground, but not before pleasure blinded me.

It only lasted a half a minute; I released her neck and roared as I climaxed. Our death spiral was halted as we both spread our wings and separated. I felt sweating hands scrabble at my neck, _"Hush, my spirit-bringer. We are safe."_

The hands relaxed, but did not leave their spot on my neck. I was glad, because I didn't want them to.

As I touched down, I felt my soul heave a breath of relief as he was back on the ground. He made to get off, but I gurgled at him, _"Why get off?"_

"Don't- don't you two want to be alone?"

I snorted, _"Human thinking. She strong dragoness, not need me to comfort her."_

And true to my word, my human looked up to see my mate for this season preening her wings neatly.

I could feel the silent demand rolling off of my human and sighed as I walked over to her. She seemed surprised as well to see me so soon after the first flight, though we would breed again later.

"_What? What do you want?" _She asked, raising her head and glaring at me.

I gave a non-committed sound, because honestly, I wasn't interested any further at the moment. Unfortunately, my human was, _"What is name?"_

She nearly took flight at hearing our language come from a human. She eyed him suspiciously, _"None of your concern, __**fleshy**__."_

Regardless of the fact I'd just mated with her, I still bared my fangs and snarled. The female startled and hooded her wings about her, in protection.

My human tried again, _"Please, your name?"_

The dragoness looked as though she were going to ignore him entirely, but I would have none of it. I growled lowly and she let out a small hiss. _"It's Vestri. And yours you squishy little-"_

I snapped at her, and she pulled back, _"Do not insult my human!"_

Said human laid a hand on my shoulder, _"I am Hiccup!"_

I failed to see why he was trying to make a friendship with a dragoness that had nothing else on her mind right now other than eggs, but he persisted.

"_Need metal, strong egg shells?"_

She looked at him more closely now, her attention caught, _"Yes, the eggs will need metal, as well as for their scales. Metal makes it hard enough to survive till hatching."_

My human nodded before slipping from my side, much to my annoyance, and removing his sword from his sheath.

A panic look lit Vestri's eyes, memories of Vikings with swords, and she was ready to leap to the sky if it so much as came near the air in front of her. The female watch as my human gently laid in on the grass in front of himself, his pale peachy skin glinting off the metal.

"_This good metal. Best in village. You eat, yes?"_

I can honestly say, I'd never seen such a shocked look on a dragoness before. They were usually very shrewd and very down-to-business when it came to mating. She looked between the sword, Hiccup, and myself before nodding slowly. A hesitant claw reached out and drew the sword closer, eyeing the hilt in particular, where there was a touch of gold melted down from looting. She was particularly fascinated by the colors, tipping the sword in different directions to catch the dying light as the sun sank.

My human nodded, rather pleased with himself as he sat down in the grass. I sighed and curled up around him, my tail possessively covering him. He leaned automatically back into my side as we both watch Vestri use her fire to melt the end of the sword and devour a bite.

I rested my head against the ground and closed my eyes, my ears catching the sound of my human's heartbeat as he began to fall asleep beside me. He would jolt awake every few seconds, an attempt to remain awake and take in everything that no other human had witnessed.

"_Sleep, my partner."_

"_Too excitement."_

"_Excited,"_ I corrected.

I watched his face turn to look at me, a smile on his thin lips, bright eyes filled with happiness.

"_I glad your rider."_

I nodded.

The teen smiled again, he crawled forward and wrapped his arms around my neck. His cheek pressed against my scaled face, "I love you, you great overgrown lizard."

Beside us, Vestri snorted, whether at the human sentiment, or the fact a human had just insulted me, I wasn't sure.

Dragons had no word for love, it wasn't something I could translate to him. It was an unnecessary human emotion, and it had no real place in the harsh life that I -used- to live.

The real only one way I would be able to tell him, that despite the differences in our size, species, thoughts, and beings; he was the most important thing to me. He made me feel like I could believe that I could do anything I wanted to.

So I tired to speak back.

The first attempt at human speech sounded like a strange yelp, and he raised a brow at me. It was a few attempts with the sound getting closer to howl and a yelp when he perked up. "Love too?"

I gave him another toothless grin. _"No word for that in Dragonese."_

"_Maybe make new word?"_

I snorted, _"Maybe."_

Silence descended around us as he curled back up beside me again. Vestri eyed the pair of us before edging closer and curling up near me, her tail entwining with the tip of mine. I would have ignored her and pulled away, if not for her slowly extending ever-so-slightly a wing to canopy over my human. I inwardly smirked, no one was safe from my rider.

"Just out of curiosity Toothless, exactly, er, how long will we be here?"

I flicked my tail at his nose, _"A few weeks…"_

"_WHAT?_!"

I laughed and lowered my head back to the ground, the peace in my heart was soothing me to sleep.

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-end-

Hmm, so I hope everyone got the vibe I was trying to go with. Yes, it is awkward that Toothless would still proceed with mating, even with Hiccup on his back, but it's instinct and Hiccup cared enough to want to make Toothless happy. I don't know, I'm happy with it, so I hope you all are too! Sorry if it's a little disappointing, some people might think it doesn't have the deepness the other chapters did, but it's early and I'm tired. After nearly 6000 words, I'm pretty much like, "Yeah! I like it! Want to make something about it!"

^-^ Not really, but hey, if you do like it review. If you don't, you can still review, just be polite. Difference between polite/nice, so have at it.

Vestri: Is one of four stags of Yggsdrasill, a very holy tree in Norse Mythology. It is a parallel to a wind god for the Greeks.

I DO NOT OWN THIS SONG AND DID NOT WRITE THE LYRICS: This is for our pleasure only! It's perfect in describing us humans as a whole. Well, personally for me, YMMV!

**"I Am"**

I'm an angel, I'm a devil

I am sometimes in between

I'm as bad it can get

And good as it can be

Sometimes I'm a million

I'm black and white

I am all extremes

Try figure me out you never can

There's so many things I am

I am special

I am beautiful

I am wonderfu

lAnd powerful

Unstoppable

Sometimes I'm miserable

Sometimes I'm pitiful

But that's so typical of all the things I am

I'm someone filled with self-belief

And haunted by self-doubt

I've got all the answers

I've got nothing figured out

I like to be by myself

I hate to be alone

I'm up and I am down

But that's part of the thrill

Part of the plan

Part of all of the things I am

I am special

I am beautiful

I am wonderful

And powerful Unstoppable

Sometimes I'm miserable Sometimes I'm pitiful

But that's so typical of all the things I am

I'm a million contradictions

Sometimes I make no sense

Sometimes I'm perfect

Sometimes I'm a mess

Sometimes I'm not sure who I am

Chorus X2


	6. Only Forever

I known this story is marked complete, but I did say that I might update more depending on chapter plot bunnies and so on. Plus, I have a 12 page research paper due and I can't bring myself to write it right now and this is my distraction. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: DO NOT OWN

Rating: this chapter is tame, but the story will stay at M.

Warnings: there isn't any that haven't been warned for in past chapters. If you've enjoyed the story so far then you'll be alright. Some of you will be angry just before the end of the chapter, but keep reading I swear it'll be alright. (this makes no sense now, but it will. No Hiccup and Toothless aren't hurt).

Notes: I don't really have anything guys, just enjoy the story. Finals are killing me and my brain is running on empty. I had the odd occurrence of wanting really badly to write this chapter, but having such a hard time getting the words out. So, yeah, probably not as good as past chapters but more Toothless POV so... I actually am really nervous about posting this. As always, the mistakes are mine and please feel free to point them out.

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Chapter Six: Only Forever

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_-_-On island-_-_

Father. Mother. Sister. Brother... these words have no meaning to me. Oh, I know of them, I have heard my human call his sire "father" and I have heard other humans about the village use some variations that were similar but they all meant the same thing. But what was a" father" exactly?

Was a father just someone or something that gave half of their genes to the next generation? Was a father just someone that provided food and shelter for their offspring until they were grown to a satisfying point? Or was a father one that protected the offspring until they could make it on their own in the world? What made a father and a sire different?

Words, what are words good for? I know we dragons have our languages and yes, that did have it's place, but what really use were words? Actions mattered, what you did and how you reacted mattered. What good were words when your mate was starving? How did words help a grieving female to leave her nest when she realizes her egg's shells were too frail this clutch and the hatchlings inside had died, never to make it to their hatching day? How could words still a predators claws as they slice into their prey? Humans seem to think that words were necessary and that if you didn't have a spoken language or at least a language they could understand, then you were an animal. What of the language of the body? From looking at an opponent I could know almost their whole life story. The way they held their tail, the way they curled their lips, the way they shifted their weight. All of these small nuances spoke so much more loudly than the loudest of verbal shouts.

My shut eyes opened to slits at the slight sound of my human's movement in the grass. He had been sitting there on and off like that entranced for the last three days. I had told him over and over again that the eggs weren't meant to hatch for another few days, but he was so mesmerized by them. It bothered me that I was so jealous over my own eggs for the attention they were receiving. They were just eggs, honestly, I was much better to look at. I tapped a claw in the dirt out of irritation and stared at the eggs.

I stared at the eggs for an entirely different reason than my human, he was interested in the hatching, in the whole process of how these eggs were going to hatch and continue my bloodline. He was in awe that these eggs were my, and these were his words, " little children".

What a strange and unique concept, one that was as foreign to me as the idea of burrowing beneath the ground was, as I'm sure it would be for any creature of the sky. Being a parent, che, how can a dragon be a parent with the taunting sky above and stay bound to the ground while the hatchlings grew? Even though most dragonets were able to fight and flee as soon as they broke shell, they didn't have the strength -and wouldn't for several months- to sustain a glide of longer than a minute. There was no way a dragonet would be able to keep up with its fully grown parents and though they were small enough to carry right now, they wouldn't be in a year. A female couldn't risk being weighted down so heavily and a dragon that returned to the same place too frequently ran the risk of being hunted down; it was much too risky just for the sake of increasing the survival chances for the dragonets. It was the same reason a female wouldn't stay to "parent" their dragonets, the female had only enough patience to lay her eggs in a week and than the eggs hatch within three or four weeks after being laid. Dragon gestation was not a very long period and for good reasons, because an egg-bound female couldn't fly very high or well and was not very agile. Therefore, she was a target and honestly they usually couldn't be bothered to stay grounded for much longer than that amount of time.

Yet, despite all my whispering to myself that I shouldn't grow attached to these eggs, just as I had told myself in the past, these four eggs... the felt different to me. I had sired dragonets in the past and this was not my first clutch, but for reasons I couldn't understand, these eggs felt more real to me. I can only imagine that it was me that had changed, for the mating had been the same, Vestri was beautiful and above average, but still a Night Fury and nothing incredibly special. Even the clutch size was average, four eggs was a good size for a clutch, not quite as numerous as Terrors, but certainly nothing to snort at. They were even the same average color for a Night Furies, an dusky brown with more speckles of dark brown than what some other breeds had. Their shells were, too my immense satisfaction, harder than average due to the high grade of metal Vestri had consumed. I tilted my head, staring more intensely than before, that could be a good or bad thing. Too hard and the dragonet would die in the shell, unable to find the strength to break free, but too thin meant that they could die from cold more easily and scavengers would make quick work of them if we even turned our backs for an instant.

I had been contemplating these emotions, and oh how I've changed to even feel such things and had decided that I was simply worried, not afraid, thank you. I was conflicted by the resentment the eggs and the emotions the stirred in my gullet caused as well as the blossoming desire to see them hatch and to see them grow.

I tilted my head to the side and caught sight of a different Night Fury, one that I hadn't caught the name of and honestly couldn't be bothered to go over and meet. Narrowing my eyes at the other male, I made it very clear that any further approach would lead to very bad things for the other.

This wasn't unusual, the other Night Furies had come over through out the week, carefully, because Vestri would go for their throat if the moved too close to the nest with me following behind her. They seem rather shocked that I could produce a fine clutch because of my "injury". The claws that I had been tapping clawed at the dirt in sheer irritation, of course I could still sire offspring, my tail was injured not my-

"Toothless! Toothless! One just rocked, I swear it did!" My human's visage popped up in front of my eyes and I started a little at his sudden outburst. Wiping the shameful shock off my face, I didn't even bother to answer him, instead rolling my eyes and butting him gently in a chastising fashion.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. They have time left, but how can you not be excited?"

Well, it was very easy not to be, but the truth would either hurt him or enrage him and the next thing I'd know, we'd be on some mission picking up little dragonets all along the coastline on the way back the village. I gave him my best half-smile, the one that he liked so much and went back to brooding.

_"Any changes?"_

I turned said brooding eyes onto my current mate, _"Not since the last time you asked,"_

She gave me a strange look, because while I generally tried to avoid her except for when I had to interact with her, I wasn't normally so short with her.

_"What's wrong, your little p-"_ she paused as my eyes narrowed at her, _"-human... your little human won't pay attention to you? I don't blame him for being so captured by the eggs, these eggs are my best clutch yet, look at the color on those shells! And just look at how hardened they are already, I-"_

I turned away and tuned her out, stars above a female could wax on and on about their eggs if you let them, instead focusing at the eggs that were causing such this new unsettling feeling in my gut. I wanted, almost desperately, to behave how I always had. Hunt for food in the sea and forest, guard the nest from predators and keep them warm, have a good romp with the mate, than as soon as the first egg cracks take off to the sky compelled by instinct. I didn't feel any guilt or shame because I didn't feel that it was wrong. It was instinct and my instincts were what had kept me alive all these years. It could be trusted always and under all circumstances needed to be obeyed. Many of my hatch-mates had died over the years, one way or another because they didn't listen. It had been the only life that I'd known, following my instincts, living day to day. That was what you did in the wild, you lived for that day and that day alone, what the future didn't matter, not when the here and now was so demanding. At least, that was how I used to live. The first time I'd ever ignored my instincts was when I writhing in pain in the soil of that cursed forest trapped by painful ropes and I looked up into a scrawny human's eyes. Eyes that were gentle and not a killers, eyes that were afraid, but mostly reserved. As he cut away my bonds, I remember the urge that welled up in me, to kill him, but I couldn't bring myself to. I roared in furious frustration at feeling torn both inside and out and ran away like a coward.

Who could have known how that one act would change my life? That now, instead of tracking time and my life by sunrises and sunsets, I know tracked my life by his good mornings and good nights? That I felt secure and safe enough to plan my future, a future of flying through deep forests and over misty waves with his slight weight on my back. That I even kind of liked that girl-human who frustrated my human. She would have made a terrific dragon and really, it was such a shame she hadn't been born one. That living in that human settlement with the strange name of Berk wasn't as difficult as it once had been and I sort of kind of missed it?

A sudden sound near the nest caused me to raise my head just in time to observe another egg rock subtly near it's companions. One act...just one little act could change so much. What could a small act do here, what could staying a little longer do? Not too much longer, but long enough to see them this time. Really see them though, not just catch a glimpse of slick black hide as I wing away back into the sky.

I couldn't understand the desire, I'd never felt the urge to stay behind, I'd never even really thought about all of the dragonets I'd sired, but now a slight twinge pulled at me. How many could I have saved? I shook myself violently, my head whipping slightly back and forth. Why in the great sky did I even care?

This brought up a new problem though, there were some breeds that just couldn't be near their offspring because after the little ones hatched they suddenly looked more like meals and less like offspring. Would I feel something similar? If I stayed, if I decided to stay and watch them hatch, what would I do if I suddenly wanted to eat them? Which was more cruel, to leave them as they're hatching or to stay and watch them hatch only to snap them up like they were snacks?

I felt disgust shiver through me, like a ghostly mist rolling down the scales of my spine. The disgust confused me too, but I thought about what my human would think. I felt my heart shrivel in fear and a aching cold spread through me. What would he think if succumbed to an instinct like that?

I looked over at the human in question. He was kneeling once again at the edge of the nest, humming to himself and the eggs with a goofy smile on his face. He was probably imaging this hatching being something magical and as special as what a human birth was, that when they hatched I would feel some mystical bond called parental instinct and want to help them. That they would look at me and want my help, would want to follow me. I groaned quietly and slumped more fully on the ground, the cold dirt soothing me. I didn't have the heart or willpower to correct his thinking. That the hatching would be anything but magical, that the hatchlings would be hungry and violent and might even turn on one another before even leaving the meager safety of the nest. That this island would be the home to the young dragonets for the next year before they could muster the energy to leave the island. Some wouldn't even make the flight off the island, some wouldn't make the flight to a different land, too weak to make the journey. In a harsh life in the wild, there were survivors and those that didn't make it to carry on.

There were many good things about the wild though. It wasn't all terrible events and harsh reality. It really depended on how one viewed the world. If one excepted the harshness of life and made it to adulthood, they had a relatively easy life ahead of them. Making it out of adolescence was the hardest part of living in the wild, but once you grew enough to do the chasing rather than being chased, life was pretty good.

I glanced up at the sky through the screen of my paws and the treetops, noting that it was beginning to get dark. Vestri and I would be fine, but my human would need at least a fire. It bothered me that I couldn't provide enough heat, but I was realistic enough to admit I wasn't when I first saw him shivering a few weeks ago. From then on, I'd been sure to hunt for firewood to keep him warmer.

_"You need fire."_

Vestri looked at me strangely as I spoke, but realized I wasn't talking to her and flicked the humming human with her tail tip._ "Human, your mount is speaking to you." _

I snorted at her, half tempted to snap but more interested in making sure my human had a comfortable night. His green eyes finally landed on my own, _"Is late already?"_

_"Late enough," _I stood up, grumbling slightly from the pain in my arms and the general creakiness I felt. I started to head deeper into the woods after making sure that my lanky human was following behind me.

It was peaceful in the woods, most of the Furies on the island decided they'd prefer to hunt at the other nearby islands so there were very little other dragons in our area. I watched pale hands grab fallen branches before piling them onto my back. I was debating over destroying a leaning half-dead tree when my ears pricked up at the soft voice,_ "Toothless, we stay for hatchlings?"_

I sighed said nothing. I had never stayed for the hatching of my own offspring and couldn't even begin to think of a way to explain it to him. Glancing at him was my another mistake that was just another on the long list of mistakes. He looked like a fiery spirit in the dying light of the sun, one hand rubbing the other in a futile gesture of comfort. The look in his eyes, it was soft and even worse, understanding, and I had the sinking feeling he might have already guessed it.

I watched one his hand leave his arm and rest on my side, it was reassuring and the wonder of how easily he soothed me washed over me. _"Toothless, your childs, we stay?"_

I knew what he wanted and what he was asking for, and stars I wasn't strong enough for this. I could face down a huge queen...for him. I could face off against two hostile dragons... for him. I could even make believe that my arm would heal on faith along...for him. For him, I'd do anything that was in my power to do, give anything that was within my power to give. But bathed in the unwavering gaze of those almost luminescent eyes, beseeching me to face my doubts and to try to be what his idea of a father should, I wasn't sure I had the ability to say no even though I was sure I couldn't say yes.

The silence stretched between us, like a rope pulled and waiting to snap. What did more did he want from me? What more could I even possible give him? For him, I'd forsaken everything that once made me who I was without him even asking for it. No dragon, save for a very very few breeds would ever contemplate staying for their dragonets, did he understand what he was asking?

Maybe he didn't, not really. I'm sure he didn't think he was asking for anything drastic, he probably didn't know how against my very nature. That the idea of staying and actually raising dragonets was one of the most frightening things I could imagine doing, save for hurting him. No dragon before had tried to be a "parent" not even the breeds that stayed to raise their dragonets called themselves a parent, they brought food and kept predators away. Love didn't exist for us dragons... there wasn't a word for it.

'Maybe create new word,' had been what he said so innocently and how like him to make that small innocuous request. He didn't even realize how much he was re-inventing for the Draconian kind, did he?

In the end, it wasn't really much of a choice after all, how could I have ever told him no?

-next morning-

When I awoke this morning, I realized two things rather quickly. One, my human was not at my side or under my wing. Two, said human was near Vestri whom was asking some of the strangest questions I'd ever heard come from a dragoness's mouth.

_"So, you say humans aren't born from an egg? That you give birth to live hatchlings?"_

_"No hatchling – babies."_

_"And these babies are able to fend for themselves? They can run and hide?"_

My human doubled up laughing, which caused Vestri to hood her wings in both shock and self-conscious embarrassment.

_"No, no babies need help. Humans give."_

_"What do you mean by humans give help?"_

_"When baby born, parents raise till human is grown."_

From the comical confusion on her face, I could tell the Vestri couldn't even imagine what he was talking about. In fact, she turned to me, nearly incredulous,_ "What is he babbling about? Human's actually rear their young like deer or sheep?" _

I huffed, _"Not quite like sheep, but they do keep them till they are nearly grown themselves."_

She sat down heavily, _"But that's YEARS, how do they manage for so long?" _

_"Because we love our babies." _

She looked over at me, puzzled, _"What is that word he said? I don't understand it."_

_"That's because it is not dragonese,"_ I responded before growling something that wasn't translatable, it was too early for this conversation and I was hungry. _"We fish?"_

The smile that twisted across the youth's face was satisfying, "Let's go buddy, we didn't go flying at all yesterday!"

As we walked past Vestri, who was watching us with a strange contemplating look, I paused briefly, _"Have you spent any time near humans?"_

I asked it as neutrally as possible, I really was curious, most dragon at least knew that humans raised their young.

The sleek dragoness scratched at the ground in a sheepish fashion, _"I have never been close to a human village before. I have seen humans, but I never really tried to study them..."_

I blinked, before grunting slightly as I felt my human settle on my back, he'd jumped up while I wasn't paying attention. I wondered briefly how young Vestri was before shrugging, it didn't really matter.

I cleared my mind until it was empty but for the growing sense of elation that I would be flying and not just flying, but spending time with my human in the clear sky. I felt his slim hands tightened on his reigns before I sprang aloft, his whooping as we took flight all the encouragement I needed.

The world spread out like a rolled carpet in front of me, in vivid colors of blues and greens and the last touches of a beautiful dawn. The wind held a nip, but it was an invigorating one that awoke the primal side of my heart. I looked back every so often to see my human with his head tilted back, his russet hair whipping away with the force of the wind. Perfection. His pleasure from flying, the wind caressing the underside of my strong wings...

Perhaps, if I had been more observant, I would have realized that just because Vestri seemed to know what she was doing, that didn't mean she was an expert at it. That just because she'd had a clutch before, didn't mean she'd had many before them. If I had taken just a few more minutes to get to know her better, I'd maybe have found out that this was only her third mating and she really hadn't had too much experience in the way of nesting.

But life has a way of rearing up and biting you when you least expect it.

-mid-day-

It really wasn't her fault. It really wasn't anyone's fault. There was enough space on this island that other dragons wouldn't be in range, on purpose to be sure that there would be privacy and space between the couples so there would be minimal fighting.

When we'd winged back down, I was in a rather content mood. Fishing had been good and I'd had several nice sized cods, my human had insisted on bringing back more for Vestri which I would have done anyway... maybe.

It was of course instinct that I could tell something was wrong when I landed on the ground a small distance from the nest. Vestri was no where in sight and that was unusual. No signs of struggling, but yet something had made a brooding dragoness leave her nest. Slight panic began to well up inside me, instinct was beating at the wavering wall of calm I'd been so careful to maintain.

For a moment everything was still, till I heard my human's shill cry, "Toothless, the eggs!"

I turned so slowly, as though I were weighted down with chains once again. Half of me wanted to resist looking, telling me that after finally allowing myself to care, that what I would see would hurt and the other half was the part of me that was still a wild beast.

I compromised by leaping forward without even bothering to look fully, toward where his finger was pointing and saw something green and brown wriggling near the nest. A Water Shade, a cursed-by-Hel water snake. The could range from the size of small dogs to a young water serpent and their jaws held enough power to crush rocks. Full of rage and despair, I leapt viciously at it, knowing already that revenge would be all I'd be accomplishing. My clawed paws trampled down on its neck and back breaking its spine and my jaws took its head off. To my disappointment, I felt no satisfaction as its disgusting blood flooded my throat. I felt a scrabbling on my side and watched as my human dropped off my back, wavering due to his fake foot, before he fell toward the nest, panicking and anxiously looking inside.

I followed his gaze despite knowing what he'd find, feeling a chill in the pit of my stomach and when I heard saw the cracked shells of the eggs I went a numb. The sound of a dragon's sorrowful keen from his human throat was unbearable and much to my own shock, I felt actual grief at the destroyed eggs. I had, despite my wavering emotions, been looking forward to this clutch and only just now realized it-

I couldn't stand it, my human would be safe for now, but I was too wound up to stay, too angry. I had to find Vestri. I took off running blindly into the forest. My instinct was telling me to hunt down my mate and she'd better be dying to abandon her nest at such a critical moment. Dying or dead when there were no threats that she would have to flee from, one snake was nothing to a dragon of her size.

My crashing was not quiet, it was not subtle, it was not how I usually would run. I was blinded by rage, how dare she? How dare she, I was going to kill-

Her... she was lying in such an unnatural position in a patch of broken bracken. Five snakes like the one I'd just killed were lying in bloody ribbons around her. Once again, for the upteenth time since I'd gotten on this island, conflicting emotions warred within me. Guilt, shame, pain, sorrow, and even pity were there and I wanted to roar, I wanted to roar and roar and roar.

Carefully, I walked up to her, cocking my ears to listen for her heartbeat. To my surprise, it was there as I hadn't expected one, I even felt a little relief. As I swept my gaze over her, I wondered how she'd react to the news that our clutch was- was gone. These snakes, one by themselves wasn't so difficult, but together, they'd be enough to take her down.

I felt more shame, but not me. They might've taken her down, but they wouldn't have gotten me. I had fought snakes like these before. The kinds that waited for an opportune moment to strike before they went after eggs. I knew how they worked too, one would stay behind to quickly gulp down eggs while the others of the group would lead the one attending the eggs away.

As I looked Vestri over, and really looked her over, not just looking to see her breeding potential, I realized that her body showed all the signs of recently reaching adolescence and certainly wasn't experienced enough to realize the trap the snakes had set.

I wanted to be angry with her, to blame it all on her, but living with my human, with Hiccup, had taught me better. There was no one that could punish her more than herself. Again, how strange it was that a dragoness would feel such sorrow over dead eggs than sorrow over dead dragonets.

I reached down and gently picked her up. From a brief appraisal I could tell she had a broken wing and a broken forearm, most likely from the crushing strength of a snake's jaws. When she was securely on my shoulders and back, I picked my way carefully back to the beach, to our nest, to my human.

When I made it back, the morbid sight of the nest brought back the sorrow, grief, and regret. Regret that'd I'd never see what it would be like to see these eggs hatch. Regret at not discovering once and for all if a Night Fury could make the transition from just a sire to something like a father.

I deposited her as carefully as I could onto her uninjured side. I was worried about Hiccup, he hadn't turned to me yet, his body hunched over his chest. I didn't hear any sobbing, but I could smell the bitter salty scent of his tears.

I made my way to his side, my muzzle dropping down to rub at the side of his face in a gesture of mutual misery, to my surprise he lifted his head and stared at me with something that looked suspiciously like hope. I stared at him in wonderment as he slowly uncurled the rest of the way nearly falling over in shock as he revealed the two eggs he'd been hunched over.

Two- two eggs, two of my...children. He stared at me solemnly, "You saved two Toothless, there are still two left."

I crouched to his side, nuzzling one egg in disbelief and then the other. Two eggs, I hadn't even thought to check them in my blind rush into the forest. Anything could have come after them, I could have lost all three of them, Hiccup and the two remaining eggs.

I blinked harshly as I noticed a second snake's body lying on the grass, wounds that could only have been made by a sword and felt more shame and guilt swamp me. I had left them alone, a snake could have-

"Toothless, look at my bud," the soft plea in his voice compelled me to look up at him, "I told you that I would protect you just as you protect me. I would never let anything happen to you or to your eggs."

Standing there, in that moment, I could see how far I'd come from just a mindless killer to what I was now all because of him and I could see what a long way I had left to go just to be worthy to sit beside him. I felt humbled by the amount of love that my human, Hiccup, gave me. Humbled by the amount of patience he had, the amount of love he could give, and that even now he was looking at me like I was something that deserved the utmost amount of respect. I had at one time felt that this slip of a human should feel lucky that a dragon of my stature had decided to allow himself to be ridden like a common pack animal. That it was this boy who should feel honored to have me around. I had felt that idea shifting, changing into something different, but even until this last week that idea had been there. A small shadow of itself, but still lurking in the deepest most prideful part of my mind. Now, I knew that I would forever wonder what I had done right that this human wanted me to be his friend. What god, if they existed, did I please to be allowed to remain by his side?

I didn't save those two eggs, I hadn't saved anyone today, he did. He saved my last two eggs from this clutch while I allowed my instinct to lead me deeper into the woods. I felt both proud of him, and miserable about what I'd done.

"Toothless, that's enough." I blinked at the sudden harshness in his voice. When he stood hands on his hips, he still had to look up, but that was because I'd been growing so rapidly. "I will not let you stand there thinking that you're worthless. I may have stopped the snakes but if it hadn't been for you I'd never have lived long enough to be here. If it weren't for you, I'd be dead, my family and friends dead, my home destroyed." Those green eyes softened, "Toothless, please believe me, that even if there hadn't been a Queen dragon, that without you, my life would have been so miserable. You're my friend and I love you and if only you could see how amazing you are and how far you've come, then you'd know that you've done nothing wrong today."

_"I not know what I do to deserve you."_I whispered, looking down at those two eggs and then back up to his green eyes.

He smiled, "Sometimes good things just happen, isn't it enough that you have such a good heart?"

I smiled a toothless smile at him, but inside I cringed unable to believe him. I hadn't been good, I had been an evil killing machine before him. In fact, had there even been a real life before him? Could just living day to day in such a mindless manner even be considered a life?

I slowly grabbed an egg and gestured for him to grab the other one. The nest was undamaged save for a few scuffs, bits of hard shells were all that was left of the other two eggs. I gently placed the egg down and watched as my human placed the other one down with equal reverence. "You watch them Toothless, I'll help Vestri."

I nodded, nuzzling him one last time before I fired my blue fire at the eggs to warm them. I wrapped my body around the eggs, even if it took another week for them to hatch, short of Hiccup's life in danger, I wasn't moving from this spot.

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-Two Days Later-

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Vestri would recover, but she wouldn't be leaving the ground for at least another month. She didn't even seem to be bitter about it as she practically fell to the ground in front of me or my human whenever we walked near her.

She had been devastated to learn that she'd fallen for such a simple trap like some common variety dragon, that she'd allowed to eggs to be killed. Hearing that we'd swooped in and save the other two, and I made sure to stress that it had been Hiccup that had saved the other two when I went to find her, her entire attitude had changed. She'd laid meek as a lamb as he set her wings and gave her wild herbs for her pain. She, being ground-bound now, would willingly leave to get firewood for my human so he would be warm, going so far as to even collect the softest grasses and pine needles to create a nest for him to sleep in near the night fire. She'd lay near his feet as he sat beside her eggs staring at him and absorbing all that he told her about his home and our adventures.

I didn't even have it in me to be upset about the amount of attention she was lavishing on him either, I felt that all the dragons in the world could look upon him with adoration and it would still not be that amount that he deserved. Maybe I was biased, maybe I was whipped, maybe I was no better, now, than a hound that sulked near his master's heel, but for the first time in a long time I couldn't care. I know understood what the dog felt when they gazed up on their master, how they felt when even a shred of love was given to them. I coveted each scratch, each pat, each tender word from him like the priceless jewel it was.

The eggs had been steadily moving more and more often and I knew from that itching sensation to fly that it would be soon for their hatching. Vestri had been, at first, confused and nervous about the idea of staying with the two eggs. Despite the guilt over the death of the other two, she had not yet crossed the roads I had being with Hiccup and could not understand what I meant when I said that I would be sure to raise these eggs. She didn't understand yet, but I was sure with the month that we had, for Hiccup wouldn't leave her alone while she was injured, she'd soon come to see things his way, most people eventually did anyway.

Speaking of said human, he was currently sitting propped up against my side as we both stared at the increasingly active eggs. _"We must think names,"_his face so solemn that I nearly laughed.

I didn't need to apparently as he elbowed me gently, _"I serious, names very importance."_

This time, I did snort, after all, he'd named me Toothless and he was named Hiccup. Apparently he was getting a headache because he switched back to his language, "We Vikings name our children unappealing names so we aren't snatched away by goblins or demons in the night. So when I reach manhood, my father will tell me my true name, or I will choose one for myself."

I didn't tell Hiccup that out of his friends, Astrid, had a name that was not unpleasant, but perhaps her kin decided that she was strong enough and scary enough to fend off any goblin that tried to eat her.

"However, because you're their father and they are dragons, they should have good strong names, right?" He smiled at me and I didn't resist the urge to smile back.

Vestri crept forward like a giant black feline, her ears tipping forward as she listened with interest. After all, she had never stayed to name any of her eggs before and the conversation seemed interesting enough to her.

My human tapped his chin in thought, "How about if its a boy, we name it Drengi?"

I shrugged, frankly he could name them whatever he wanted, four weeks ago I hadn't even wanted them, that may have changed but that didn't mean I was about to start shouting out names.

_"What about Saefaris?" _

I blinked in disbelief at Vestri that had just offered a name. My human grinned like it was his birthing day,_ "What mean?"_

_"It means sea-farer or one that travels over seas."_

His hair flapped comically about his head as he nodded energetically, "That is a great name Vestri, what you think Toothless?"

I shrugged again, even if a little part of me was smiling deep down over the two of them.

_"Styrr?" _

_"Oh, I like that one! But what if it is a female?" _

"Saevor," my human said with such confidence that Vestri blinked before nodding, _"I like that name too,"_ she looked shyly at me,_ "This is kind of fun."_

I stared around the camp at the fish that my human had caught and prepared into little chunks without bones so the hatchlings wouldn't choke, again despite me telling him that the bone would be useful and fine.

It was that moment that I felt one of the eggs beneath my side wobble violently. I stood up quickly, my speed alerting my human who looked up in alarm, "Toothless?"

_"They are hatching." _

It was a strange moment, one that I never expected I would experience and poor Vestri look liked she'd just swallowed a Terror alive and whole._ "Now? But we're still here, we shouldn't be here!" _

But I ignored her, as did Hiccup, with both of us showing little concern, she lowered herself down to stare at the eggs with morbid curiosity despite her fretting.

I myself was finding it hard to stay where I was. I wanted to bolt, to run away and fly, but I wouldn't leave my human here. I felt his benevolent eyes resting on me, giving me the strength to stand in front of the rocking eggs and face them.

I lifted my head proudly, I was a Night Fury and I was the soul mate to one of the most wonderful beings that would ever walk this plane. If he had the courage to face the unknown and fight battles that any other being would run from in fright, I could face these tiny defenseless hatchlings.

The one on the left didn't rock so much as shudder violently and shell burst everywhere. A little female, wet from egg slime and bawling from hunger. She seem startled as she stared up into my eyes, fear pinning her in place. I felt my human nudge a bit of fish at me and I picked it up gingerly in my claws. _"Little female, you have been hatched to me your "father" and,"_ I glanced at Hiccup and Vestri,_ " your "mother" as well as the other that you and I owe our lives to, "Hiccup. I shall be giving you your name." _

She looked up at me terrified, hardly longer than my paw, but I could already see her potential, she would be beautiful and strong. I felt the very slight stirrings of something I never had felt before, was this what human fathers felt when they gazed upon their children for the first time?

To honor my human, I named her what he had suggested,_ "Your name shall be Saevor. Now eat this fish while I attend to your sibling." _

I didn't feel any magical attachment yet, but I had a feeling of calm settle upon me, I had many years to grow attached to her and her sibling, I knew know that I could learn to be what she needed, what Hiccup would want me to be to her. I wanted it for Hiccup and honestly, a little for myself.

I couldn't blame her for being confused. There was no instinct for imprinting, but she was clever enough to realize that I looked like her, that Vestri looked like her, and that I was giving her food. She nearly choked on the first large piece, and I watched my human kneel beside her to kindly feed her.

The other egg was wobbling so hard that I thought it would roll right out of the nest, two large cracks started at the top and I waited patiently for it to break its shell, to see what this other, uh, child of mine would be.

A claw rended the egg down the side and out tumbled a male. He didn't stare at me in fear, but didn't try to challenge me either.

_"You little male, are my son. I am-" _

_"Father, yes, mother there, H-Hiccup there, name?"_

I frowned slightly put out by the little male ruining my attempt at a memorable moment before rolling my eyes,_ "Riki, I name you Riki."_

From behind me, I heard Vestri murmur in approval and Hiccup look up from feeding m-my daughter?

_"It means clever and mighty." _

The little male nodded at me, then looked pleadingly for food, which Vestri carefully brought over. She sliced the pieces smaller and watched in wonder as he ate from each of her claws. A dawning look of understanding was growing and I knew she'd never be the same again, just like I never would be.

As I watched my human feed my children and pet them, I felt a sense of being more complete and fully of joy I'd ever felt. I was no longer just a Night Fury, no longer just a beast. I was a friend, a soul-mate, a regular mate, a- a father. My eyes slowly closed on the scene before me, watching my Hiccup, watching my family, I felt like I'd stumbled into something so much larger than myself, something that I would never have had if it weren't for a mistake and a pair of green eyes.

I wasn't what I had once been and for the life of me, I wouldn't want it any other way.

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-end of chapter-

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I felt like this chapter was weaker than the others, maybe a bit rushed. But the idea wouldn't leave me alone. So love it? Hate it? If you dislike it, feel free to just ignore this chapter and feel that chapter 5 was the last one. I kind of like this chapter, so as always feel free to let me know what you think? Its nearly 18 pages long, so maybe my lack of sleep and my finals are really a good thing... probably... not...

Also, please forgive any wonky formatting, it is ff. net

Saevor- Sea battle or a battle at sea

Riki- Mighty, distinguished, clever, rich


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